C/^<is    at: 


C  . 
(7 


THE  STORY 


OF  A 


CONNECTICUT  LIFE 


BY 


CHARLES  Q.  ELDREDGE 


1919: 

Allen  Book  and  Printing  Co. 
Troy,  N.  Y. 


Copyright,  1919, 

By  Allen  Book  and  Printing  Co. 
Troy,  N.  Y. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Chas.  Q.  Eldredge 

The  Old  Homestead 

Werner  Hotel 

Mrs.  B.  F.  Miner 

Miss  Virginia  L.  Bacon     - 

Rev.  E.  E.  Piersons    - 

Miss  Alice  Hale 

Picture  Group 

Christopher  Eldredge,  Nancy  Eldredge 

First  Home  in  Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y. 

Mill,  Warehouse  and  Office, 

Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y. 
House  at  Old  Mystic,  Ct. ,  with  Observation 

Tower,  called  "  Riverview,"  Facing  Page  61 

Residence  and  Office,  Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y.  Facing  Page  62 
Yacht,  James  G.  Blaine  Facing  Page  66 

House  in  Mystic  as  Sold  in  1913  -       Facing  Page  67 

Home,  Chas.  Q.  Eldredge,  Riverview  Cottage 

Facing  Page  68 
Private  Museum  -      Facing  Page  69 


Facing  Title  Page 
Facing  Page  13 

-  Facing  Page  28 
Facing  Page  39 
Facing  Page  41 
Facing  Page  42 
Facing  Page  50 
Facing  Page  51 
Facing  Page  52 
Facing  Page  59 

Facing  Page  60 


2013160 


THE  STORY  of  a 
CONNECTICUT  LIFE 

ba  CHARLES  Q.  ELDREDGE 


It  is  very  generally  expected  when  an  autobi- 
ography is  presented  to  the  public,  that  there 
shall  be  something  in  it  more  interesting  than 
found  in  the  ordinary  novel,  and  this  I  suppose 
is  on  the  basis  that  truth  holds  up  higher  ideals, 
and  could  they  only  be  told,  presents  more  in 
facts,  than  the  most  successful  novelist  has  ever 
attained  in  fiction. 

It  is  very  reasonable,  however,  for  the  writer 
of  an  autobiography  to  fall  far  short  of  what  the 
public  expects  of  him,  for  he  is  handicapped 
from  the  start,  in  that  no  one  seems  anxious  to 
arrange  with  him  for  a  publication  of  his  biogra- 
phy, (and  this  he  cannot  understand),  and  so  if 
his  story  is  to  be  told  he  must  use  his  own  pen 
and  tell  it  in  his  own  way. 

For  several  years  and  from  time  to  time,  I 
have  received  written  requests  from  absent  friends 
to  write  up  the  story  of  my  life,  but  until  recently 
I  have  never  considered  it. 

Necessarily  there  will  be  a  lot  left  out,  but  I 
will  agree  to  put  in  only  what  really  happened, 


and  maybe,  if  the  reader  or  hearer  of  this  story 
was  writing  his  own  life,  there  would  be  an  occa- 
sional streak  of  forgetfulness?  in  the  record. 

Some  wise  novelist  has  said  "Every  story 
should  have  a  beginning,"  and  many  of  us  have 
said  in  reading  their  effusions  "The  end  should 
be  proper  close  to  it." 

However,  for  a  beginning,  I  was  born  in  Old 
Mystic  in  1845  and  so  far  as  I  can  remember 
there  was  no  especial  celebration  or  housewarm- 
ing  over  the  event. 

The  occasion  had  been  repeated  eight  times  in 
the  family  upon  my  arrival,  and  my  birth  to  look 
back  upon  was  of  unusual  interest  only  because 
it  was  the  last  one. 

As  the  sewing  machine  came  out  the  year  of 
my  birth,  there  was  some  talk  of  making  it  a  na- 
tional holiday,  but  as  my  father  was  a  boss  car- 
penter working  for  one  twenty-five  a  day  and  ten 
hours  in  the  day,  he  only  approved  of  Sundays 
and  the  Fourth  of  July,  as  days  of  rest. 

I  have  always  been  led  to  believe  that  it  was  a 
disappointment  to  my  family  that  I  was  not  born 
earlier  in  the  month,  so  they  could  have  had  an 
enjoyable  holiday  upon  the  Fourth  of  July,  but 
the  Bible  record  makes  the  fifteenth  of  July  my 
birthday  and  so  far  we  have  gotten  along  very  well 
with  it. 

On  general  principles  it  reads  better  in  a  biog- 
raphy to  have  the  hero  born  late,  rather  than 
early. 


As  it  is  quite  the  custom,  my  early  years  were 
spent  with  my  parents  who  continued  to  make 
Old  Mystic  their  home. 

When  I  was  four  years  of  age  I  had  a  fall  from 
the  rear  end  of  an  ox-cart,  cutting  my  forehead 
upon  a  stone  as  I  struck  the  ground  that  caused 
a  scar  yet  visible. 

Some  have  said  that  this  fall  affected  my  brain. 

The  same  year  we  moved  from  the  large  house 
afterwards  owned  and  occupied  by  A.  B.  Taylor, 
to  the  place  where  I  now  live. 

This  was  in  1849,  and  my  father  put  on  a  scow, 
near  where  the  Woolen  Company's  factory  now 
stands,  the  small  house  that  he  had  previously 
moved  from  Milltown,  and  brought  to  this  place. 

The  lot  he  had  previously  bought  of  E.  D. 
Wightman,  cashier  of  the  Mystic  Bank. 

And  right  here  it  will  be  proper  to  explain  the 
local  names,  Mystic,  and  Old  Mystic. 

For  something  like  one  hundred  and  sixty  years, 
the  village  at  the  head  of  the  river  was  known  as 
Mystic,  and  for  very  many  years  after  it  was  so 
known. 

The  lower  village  was  Mystic  Bridge  on  the 
east,  and  Mystic  River  on  the  west,  and  there  were 
Post  Offices  on  both  sides  under  these  names. 

Up  here  the  John  Hyde  Co.  operated  two  large 
cotton  mills  and  another  at  Indian  Town,  sup- 
plied from  this  village. 

We  had  two  banks  here,  one  a  state  bank,  the 
other  a  national  bank.  The  railroad  ran  from 


Providence  to  Stonington  only,  and  all  freight 
came  by  water  to  Mystic  Bridge. 

Barges,  which  were  large  scows,  met  the  in- 
coming vessels  there,  and  brought  their  freight 
up  the  river  to  Mystic,  and  carried  down  the  out- 
put from  the  factories. 

Captain  William  Taylor,  Captain  William  Car- 
penter, Captain  Amos  Mitchell,  Thomas  Lymas 
and  B.  F.  Collins,  owned  and  operated  this  line  of 
freighters. 

This  village  was  a  lively  one  and  the  home  of 
many  hundreds  of  people. 

When  the  railroad  from  Stonington  to  New 
London  was  completed,  it  seemed  to  change  the 
old  order  of  things. 

The  Hyde  Company  went  out  of  business. 

Banks  started  at  Mystic  Bridge  and  Mystic 
River,  and  the  railroad  found  it  impossible  to  sell 
tickets  satisfactorily  to  so  many  Mystics. 

As  the  lower  village  now  increased  rapidly,  it 
was  found  that  correspondents  directed  their  let- 
ters to  Mystic,  and  they  came  up  here  when  in- 
tended for  the  lower  villages;  and  the  railroad 
tickets  were  printed  Mystic,  with  the  result  that 
a  general  howl  went  up  to  Washington  asking 
them  to  give  the  name  of  Mystic  to  the  lower  vil- 
lages; and  the  people  up  here  chose  Old  Mystic 
as  the  best  they  could  do. 

This  made  much  feeling,  some  of  which  still 
exists. 

I  was  out  of  the  State,  as  will  be  shown  later, 


when  this  change  was  made,  but  I  felt  as  all  here 
did,  that  it  was  in  a  measure,  at  least,  unfair. 

When  I  think  of  our  village  as  it  used  to  be, 
employing  hundreds  of  operatives  in  her  factories, 
building  gun  boats  for  the  government,  as  she  did 
in  1812;  building  a  large  schooner  of  three  hun- 
dred tons,  named  the  Mystic  Valley,  in  1858; 
having  a  side  wheel  steamer  with  Capt.  Rowland, 
master,  carrying  passengers  up  to  the  dock;  and 
see  her  as  a  village,  as  she  is  now,  with  only  one 
industry,  and  no  bank,  it  looks  as  if  the  railroad 
had  really  taken  more  than  we  had  been  paid  for. 

Besides,  Major  Lamb  had  two  factories  over  to 
Burnetts  Corners,  one  of  them  built  on  the  site  of 
the  Pequot  Fort,  destroyed  by  Mason,  that  drew  all 
supplies  and  shipped  all  outputs  from  this  village. 

However,  Mystic  as  now  called  may  glory  in  the 
way  she  has  gone  ahead,  and  left  us  far  behind, 
she  can  never  rob  us  of  our  "Porters  Rocks,"  or 
of  the  Oldest  Baptist  Church  Organization  in  Con- 
necticut. 

Just  outside  the  village  we  have  in  good  repair, 
the  first  parsonage  built  in  the  United  States  for 
the  use  of  this  same  society,  and  Old  Mystic  as 
now  called,  shows  the  longest  pastorates  that  the 
world  has  a  record  of,  a  father,  son,  and  grand- 
son preached  for  this  society  a  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-five years. 

In  my  early  days  the  choir  was  led  by  a  bass 
viol,  played  by  Ezekiel  Gallup  and  it  seems  to  me 
from  memory,  no  pipe-organ  has  ever  exceeded 


the  melody  and  harmony  produced  by  that  choir. 

The  Sunday  School  of  the  fifties  was  somewhat 
different  from  that  of  to-day. 

I  have  one  of  the  Infant  Cathechism  Books  and 
also  one  of  the  books  from  the  Sunday  School  Li- 
brary. 

Its  title  is  "John  Rogers,  Burned  at  the  Stake." 

Nothing  of  a  less  serious  nature  was  admitted. 

At  the  age  of  six,  I  entered  the  common  school 
taught  by  Miss  Aseneth  Williams. 

The  school -house  was  a  two  story  one,  near 
where  the  present  school -house  stands. 

The  younger  pupils  all  attended  down  stairs, 
and  when  we  were  tall  enough  we  went  up. 

On  the  left  hand  corner  of  the  school-room,  a 
piece  of  board  was  nailed  across,  with  the  edge 
down,  about  two  feet  from  each  side  and  I  should 
guess  some  three  and  a  half  feet  high. 

At  the  beginning  of  each  term  we  were  lined  up 
and  told  to  measure. 

If  any  of  our  heads  hit  the  board  we  had  to  go 
upstairs  to  a  man  teacher. 

I  remember  I  "scrunched"  one  term,  for  Sarah 
Fellows  was  teacher  and  I  just  loved  Sarah,  and 
so  I  got  an  extra  term  downstairs.  Sometimes 
those  that  went  up  were  so  very  ignorant  and  stu- 
pid that  the  teacher  would  send  them  down  to 
measure  again,  but  so  far  as  I  remember  they  al- 
ways confirmed  the  previous  measurement. 

Kindergartens  and  grades  were  unknown,  inches 
only  counted.  There  were  no  laws  compelling 


attendance,  and  home  duties  came  first,  so  that 
inequalities  in  proficiency  were  frequent.  The 
school  in  summer  had  few  pupils,  but  in  winter 
every  seat  was  filled. 

The  fall  term  started  late  and  after  my  last  term 
downstairs,  when  I  ought  to  have  gone  up,  I  en- 
tered barefoot,  hoping  I  could  get  under  the  board 
again,  but  it  was  too  conspicuous  and  altho  I  tried, 
and  was  the  only  barefoot  one  there,  I  was  made 
to  go  upstairs. 

I  think  for  several  winters  I  got  along  pretty 
well  but  I  know  we  were  pretty  troublesome  to  the 
teachers,  and  rarely  the  same  one  taught  us  more 
than  one  term. 

School  visitors  were  not  pleasant  to  us,  tho  an 
exception  to  this  was  Gen.  Williams  of  Norwich, 
whom  we  all  liked,  for  he  told  us  nice  stories  with 
his  good  advice. 

Esquire  Sabin  of  Mystic  was  our  special  horror 
for  he  never  commenced  his  address  until  five  min- 
utes of  four,  and  generally  talked  till  five  o'clock. 

At  one  time  it  was  given  out  that  the  Commit- 
tee, one  of  whom  was  Abel  Hinckley,  father  of 
the  one  now  living  here,  had  hired  a  man  for  the 
coming  winter  that  would  be  very  strict  and  never 
let  a  day  pass  without  flogging  at  least  one  boy. 

Of  course,  this  kind  of  talk  nerved  us  up  and 
when  school  was  to  commence  we  had  out  scouts 
to  give  notice  of  his  approach. 

There  were  forty-two  of  us  boys,  and  forty-five 
girls.  Our  scouts  reported  him  coming  afoot 


from  North  Stonington  way.  His  name  was  Hib- 
bard  R.  Norman,  stood  over  six  feet  and  was  not  a 
handsome  man. 

We  formed  two  ranks  from  the  school-house 
steps,  up  the  road  he  was  to  come  down. 

We  had  the  girls  on  the  outer  end. 

Like  a  V  we  opened  up,  he  entering  by  the  mid- 
dle of  the  road  at  the  wide  end. 

He   had   an   old-fashioned   Kennebecker   in   his 
hand  and  as  he  came  down  the  line,  "with  our  eyes 
front  and  hats  off,"  we  received  him. 
.  As  I  remember  it,  he  did  not  like  it. 

(He  did  not  have  much  humor.) 

We  got  into  the  school-house,  which  had  four 
rows  of  double  seats  with  desk  in  front. 

From  the  platform,  and  teacher's  desk,  the  right 
side  was  for  boys  and  the  left  for  girls. 

All  the  larger,  were  way  back,  tapering  to  the 
smallest  in  front.  We  had  all  agreed  that  when 
our  names  were  asked,  which  was  the  first  thing  to 
be  done,  that  we  would  all  give  fictitious  middle 
initials. 

If  there  were  those  that  had  no  middle  letter 
they  should  put  one  in,  and  those  that  did  have, 
should  change  it. 

Now  as  it  happened,  I  sat  on  the  back  seat  to 
the  left  hand  side  and  was  the  first  to  be  called 
upon  to  give  my  name. 

I  suppose  it  was  because  my  parents  had  so 
many  children  that  they  never  gave  them  a  mid- 
dle name,  anyway  none  of  them  ever  got  one. 

10 


So  when  he  looked  at  me,  saying  he  wished  to 
enter  the  names  upon  the  register,  I  responded 
Chas.  Q.  Eldredge. 

Trouble  set  in  immediately,  for  not  only  the 
boys,  but  all  of  the  girls  broke  out  into  a  hearty 
laugh. 

My  seatmate  at  this  time  was  Albert  F.  Crumb, 
now  of  Groton  Bank,  and  while  he  went  back  on 
his  promise,  and  the  false  initial  business  ended 
right  there,  and  while  it  made  me  a  lot  of  trouble, 
I  do  not  know  as  he  ought  to  be  blamed. 

Of  course,  I  was  pretty  mad  at  the  time. 

In  those  days  the  Roll  Call  was  one  of  the  most 
prominent  things  in  school  work. 

To  illustrate:  In  the  morning  at  the  opening  of 
school  the  roll  was  called. 

At  twelve  o'clock  when  school  was  to  be  dis- 
missed, the  roll  was  called. 

At  one  o'clock  when  school  was  opened,  the  roll 
was  called  and  at  four  o'clock,  dismissal  time,  it 
was  called  again. 

At  first  I  could  give  no  reason  for  it,  but  later 
when  I  had  been  repeatedly  sent  .out  by  the  teach- 
er to  cut  young  beach  sprouts  for  use  in  his  busi- 
ness, I  decided  that  if  it  was  not  to  note  the  dead, 
it  certainly  was  to  mark  the  wounded. 

That  first  forenoon,  when  he  called  the  roll  at 
twelve  the  same  howl  went  up  from  every  seat  ex- 
cept mine. 

I,  some  way,  did  not  feel  like  laughing. 

At  one  o'clock  again;  and  now  he  caught  on,  but 

11 


could  not  tell  the  exact  why  of  it. 

At  four  o'clock  again  they  broke  forth  and  he 
dismissed  the  school  but  "requested"  me  to  stop. 

Some  of  the  boys  tried  to  stay  with  me,  but  he 
made  them  all  go. 

As  soon  as  they  were  out  he  told  me  to  come 
up  front,  and  in  this  case  I  considered  it  no  honor. 

If  the  man  had  had  any  fun  in  him,  it  might 
have  been  fixed,  but  he  snarled  out  the  question, 
"Why  do  they  laugh  when  I  call  your  name?" 

As  I  look  back  I  am  afraid  I  was  not  entirely 
truthful  in  my  reply  which  was,  "Oh,  they  are 
always  laughing  at  me;  why  didn't  you  keep 
THEM,  I  didn't  laugh  any." 

(True  so  far.) 

Next  he  said,  "Is  your  name  Eldredge?" 

Of  course,  to  this  I  could  say,  "Yes,  sir." 

"Well,  isn't  it  Charles?"  he  asked. 

"Always  been  called  so,"  I  said;  and  a  queer 
thing,  he  did  not  ask  me  about  the  "Q,"  but  told 
me  I  could  go  home. 

I  went,  but  even  then  I  did  not  feel  perfectly 
happy,  for  the  streets,  the  Post  Office  and  the 
stores  were  full  of  it,  and  where  he  boarded  at 
Mr.  Hinckley's  he  got  the  whole  story,  for  there 
were  two  girls  there,  one  now  the  widow  of  Allyn 
Avery  of  Mystic,  that  tried  to  tell  him  it  was  all 
fun  and  there  was  no  harm  in  "Q"  anyhow. 

Was  he  appeased? 

Not  much! 

Some  way  I  feared  trouble  and  went  to  bed 

12 


THE  OLD  HOMESTEA.D 
Built  1850 

Where  the  School  Officers  delivered  their  ultimatum. 


early  and  none  too  soon,  for  I  had  hardly  gotten 
upstairs  before  Mr.  Norman,  the  Committeeman, 
and  Esquire  Sabin  came  to  the  door,  and  entering 
the  house,  took  seats  in  the  kitchen  from  which 
a  stove  pipe  ran  through  the  ceiling  and  into  my 
room. 

We  had  a  spare  room  in  the  house,  but  that  eve- 
ning it  was  not  warmed. 

I  put  my  ear  close  to  the  stove  pipe  and  heard 
the  conversation  plainly. 

There  was  a  lot  said,  and  when  all  was  summed 
up  by  Squire  Sabin,  it  was  that  I  was  to  come  to 
school  in  the  morning  and  when  school  was  called 
to  order,  and  before  roll  call,  I  was  to  apologize 
at  length,  and  make  a  statement  that  all  could 
understand,  setting  forth  how  sorry  I  was  and  mak- 
ing promises  of  good  conduct  and  no  capers  for 
the  future,  and  if  I  did  not  do  this,  I  was  to  be 
immediately  expelled,  and  that  before  the  whole 
school  and  in  the  presence  of  the  honorable  Com- 
mittee, who  were  to  be  in  attendance  and  who 
were  to  have  the  pleasure  of  reading  my  sentence. 

While  the  hearing  of  this  was  interesting,  it  was 
not  very  agreeable. 

It  gave  me,  however,  time  to  think,  and  in  a 
measure  to  prepare  myself. 

As  a  boy  of  about  fifteen  who  really  liked  to  go 
to  school,  and  did  not  want  to  disgrace  his  par- 
ents by  being  expelled,  the  situation  was  a  solemn 
one. 

I  slept  little  that  night  and  had  no  strong  de- 

13 


sire  for  breakfast.  My  parents  in  the  morning 
told  me  of  their  callers,  expressed  their  sorrow 
that  a  boy  of  theirs  should  do  such  a  thing,  and  in- 
sisted that  my  grown-up  brothers  had  arrived  at 
manhood,  and  did  fairly  well  without  a  middle 
name,  and  they  could  not  understand  why  I  should 
be  so  anxious  for  one,  especially  as  it  was  such  a 
disgrace  to  them. 

However,  they  knew  I  would  do  the  right  thing 
when  I  went  up  to  school,  and  they  only  hoped 
it  would  be  a  life-long  lesson  to  me.  And  I  will 
say  right  here  in  parenthesis  "it  has." 

I  hung  around  "Hank's  Grove"  till  the  last 
notes  of  the  bell  called  me  in,  but  even  then  as 
I  sought  the  streets  I  was  yelled  to  from  the  Post 
Office  and  Morgan's  store,  "Hello,  'Q' ",  and  this 
by  adults,  who  were  full  of  my  story. 

As  I  look  back  upon  that  morning  and  the  con- 
dition of  things  at  the  opening  of  school,  I  almost 
wonder  that  I  came  out  alive.  First,  every  scholar 
was  present. 

Next,  the  committee  in  their  best  clothes,  and 
with  their  high  silk  hats  ranged  in  a  row  on  the 
floor  under  the  large  blackboard. 

Next,  the  teacher,  H.  R.  Norman,  six  feet,  three, 
and  wide  in  proportion;  and  all  against  a  little 
fellow  that  weighed  about  a  hundred  pounds,  it 
seemed  to  me  then  and  it  seems  to  me  now,  that 
there  was  not  an  equitable  division  of  forces. 

I  was  the  last  to  enter,  and  when  I  had  come 
through  the  door,  it  was  closed  by  the  teacher,  his 

14 


gavel  descended  on  his  desk,  and  he  said,  "Before 
roll  call  Charles  Eldredge  wishes  to  make  an 
apology  to  the  Committee  of  this  school  district, 
to  the  teacher,  and  to  the  scholars." 

I  had  studied  all  night  on  what  I  was  to  say, 
but  when  he  had  made  his  remarks  which  were, 
of  course,  intended  for  an  introduction,  I  could 
not  think  of  a  thing. 

As  I  hesitated,  every  eye  in  school  was  turned 
on  me,  and  even  this  did  not  really  seem  to  help 
me. 

After  a  little  I  stood  up. 

My  Heavens!  How  still  it  was! 

I  think  I  can  remember  every  word  I  said. 

First,  I  made  a  somewhat  low  bow;  this  was  to 
gain  time;  then  I  said,  "The  teacher  has  told  you 
that  I  'Want'  to  make  an  apology. 

"As  I  want  to  be  truthful  I  will  have  to  say, 
he  is  mistaken  when  he  says  I  'want'  to,  but  I  am 
going  to,  as  well  as  I  know  how. 

"This  trouble  has  all  come  about  because  I  put 
a  "Q"  in  my  name. 

"And  I  want  to  say  I  had  no  right  to  do  it,  and 
I  am  sorry  for  the  trouble  it  has  made,  and  I  will 
promise  to  never  put  another  "Q"  in  my  name  as 
long  as  I  live." 

With  this  I  sat  down  and  the  teacher  said,  "Stand 
up  again,  sir." 

Of  course,  I  stood  up. 

"What  he  wants  to  say,"  said  the  teacher,  "is 
that  he  has  committed  a  grievous  offence  against 

15 


the  morals  and  deportment  of  this  school,  that  its 
magnitude  can  hardly  be  overestimated,  that  the 
generosity,  and  magnanimity  of  the  school  Com- 
mittee and  teacher,  in  forgiving,  and  pnrdoning 
the  offence  in  consideration  of  this  apology,  is 
very  much  appreciated,  and  hb  future  conduct 
will  be  based  on  this  noble  exhibition  of  their  for- 
giving spirit — That's  what  you  want  to  say,  is  it 
not  sir?"  he  asked  me. 

I  hesitatingly  replied,  "I  suppose  you  under- 
stand it;  I  said  it  as  well  as  I  could." 

So  the  incident  was  closed  but  the  "Q"  has 
lived  on,  and  has  had  a  legal  place  in  my  name 
for  over  sixty  years. 

My  school  life  went  on,  attending  winters  and 
helping  father,  and  working  out  more  or  less, 
summers. 

The  first  money  I  remember  of  really  working 
out  by  the  day  for,  was  driving  a  pair  of  white 
horses  owned  by  Geo.  F.  Langworthy,  around  an 
oat  stack,  the  horses  treading  out  the  grain. 

For  this  I  was  paid  eight  cents  per  day. 

Are  there  many  of  my  readers  who  have  seen 
grain  thrashed  in  this  way? 

When  John  S.  Schoonhover  carried  on  a  large 
tannery  in  this  village  I  pounded  bark  for  him 
for  twenty-five  cents  a  day. 

I,  also,  at  one  time,  worked  for  Elias  B.  Brown 
husking,  filling  as  many  baskets  as  the  men,  and 
for  this  I  received  twenty-five  cents  per  day. 

As  I  remember  it,  I  had  all  the  money  I  earned, 

16 


but  the  most  of  it  went  into  clothes  and  very  little 
for  spending  money. 

Very  few  of  the  boys  had  much  money  "to 
burn"  and  my  largest  outside  expenditure  was  for 
material  to  celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July,  which 
was  never  neglected. 

All  of  my  boy  chums  worked  out  more  or 
less  summers  and  my  record  in  this  direction 
seems  full. 

In  1859  I  made  one  of  a  gang  of  road  workers, 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Hon.  Chas.  P.  Chip- 
man,  who  had  a  yearly  contract  with  the  town  of 
Groton  to  keep  all  of  its  roads  in  repair. 

I  was  really  the  only  boy  in  the  crew  but  I  held 
the  "scoop-shovel"  which  entitled  me  to  a  man's 

Pay- 
In  1860,  a  Mr.  Markham  opened  a  quarry  near 

my  home  and  with  a  crew  of  Swedes  and  Scotch- 
men broke  out  paving  stone  that  were  shipped 
to  New  York  City  to  pave  the  city  streets. 

Mr.  Markham  hired  me  to  help  break  out  the 
large  blocks  by  hand  drilling,  which  were  then 
broken  into  pavers  with  twenty-four  pound  sledges 
in  the  hands  of  the  Scotchmen. 

This  hand  drilling  seemed  to  come  natural  to 
me,  and  it  was  not  hard  work  for  me  to  get  in  the 
required  number  of  holes,  and  after  a  few  weeks, 
I  kept  the  time  and  the  books  for  Mr.  Markham, 
doing  this  work  evenings. 

This  crew  of  Scotchmen  required  some  eight 
pounds  of  oat  meal  stirred  into  the  water  they 

17 


drank  every  day,  which  I  shared  with  them,  and 
while  sometimes  it  was  so  thick  a  mixture  we  had 
to  bite  it  off  "to  stop  the  run,"  it  made  a  good 
drink  and  my  weight  increased  as  long  as  I  was  in 
the  quarry. 

The  Presidential  Campaigns  of  1856  and  1860 
were  important  epochs  in  my  life  and  I  still  have 
the  torch  I  carried  for  Fremont  and  Dayton  in 
1856. 

It  was  in  1854  that  my  head  would  not  go  un- 
der the  measuring  board  and  I  was  sent  upstairs 
to  be  under  the  teaching  of  Asa  Perkins,  a  teacher 
that  we  all  liked. 

In  1862  my  next  elder  brother  having  enlisted, 
and  being  stationed  at  Norfolk,  Virginia,  a  mem- 
ber of  Co.  C,  21st  C  V,  sent  for  his  wife  to  come 
and  see  him,  as  he  was  badly  disabled,  and  be- 
ing cared  for  in  a  private  hospital. 

As  his  wife  had  a  baby  about  six  months  old 
and  it  was  difficult  to  provide  proper  board  for  it 
in  Mystic,  it  was  thought  best  to  take  it  along 
and  I  was  to  go  along  to  pilot  the  whole  outfit. 

I  was  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  had  never 
been  more  than  seven  miles  from  home,  and  cer- 
tainly my  selection  as  head  of  the  expedition  was 
not  made  because  of  my  experience. 

In  those  days,  ordinary  people  had  few  trunks, 
but  carpet  bags  were  common. 

The  uncertainties  of  traveling,  no  Northern 
people  could  go  south  of  Baltimore  without  a 
pass,  the  mother,  the  baby,  and  myself,  especial - 

18 


ly  the  baby,  called  for  no  small  amount  of  bag- 
gage and  when  it  was  all  assembled,  for  I  have 
the  inventory  yet,  there  were  two  carpet  bags,  two 
good  sized  square  bundles,  two  medium  sized 
round  bundles,  one  ladies'  hat  box,  one  umbrella 
and  the  well-wrapped  up  baby. 

Colonel  Fish  of  Mystic  was  Provost  Marshal 
at  Baltimore  and  Elisha  D.  Wightman,  cashier  of 
the  Mystic  Bank,  gave  me  a  letter  to  him  asking 
his  assistance  in  getting  me  and  my  outfit  through 
the  lines. 

We  took  the  steamboat  from  Stonington  to  New 
York  and  another  boat  from  there  to  Baltimore. 

We  arrived  at  Baltimore  in  the  evening. 

I  was  surprised  at  the  number  of  people  on  the 
dock  who  seemed  interested  in  our  arrival  and 
"will  you  have  a  carriage"  was  asked  me  at  least 
fifty  times. 

My  general  instructions  read,  "If  you  get  to 
Baltimore  in  the  evening,  stay  at  Hotel  all  night, 
for  the  military  offices  will  not  be  open  till  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning." 

No  suggestions  were  given  to  me  as  to  what 
hotel,  so  I  asked  one  of  the  hackmen  if  he  could 
tell  me  a  good  comfortable  hotel  to  go  to,  that 
there  was  a  lady  and  baby  on  the  boat  and  my- 
self. 

"Oh,  yes,"  he  said,  "bring  them  ashore  and  I 
will  take  you  to  the  'Barnum,'  that  is  a  comfort 
able  hotel." 

Remember,  up  to  that  time  I  had  never  spent  a 

19 


night  in  a  hotel  in  my  life,  and  more  than  that, 
had  never  been  inside  of  one.  When  the  hack- 
man  saw  my  array  of  bundles,  carpet  bags,  baby, 
etc.,  he  opened  the  door  of  the  hack  without  a 
word  and  we  all  got  in. 

As  we  drove  up  to  the  main  entrance  of  the 
hotel,  we  were  met  by  the  bell-boys  and  we  had 
baggage  enough  so  every  one  got  a  piece. 

I  did  not  know  but  my  sister  would  give  up  the 
baby,  but  she  did  not. 

Our  procession  marched  to  the  clerk's  counter 
and  I  asked  for  two  connecting  rooms  and  we 
were  all  taken  upstairs. 

Some  of  the  baggage  was  put  into  each  room, 
as  I  think  they  were  short  of  tables. 

The  boys  seemed  inclined  to  tarry  with  us  and 
at  that  time  I  did  not  mistrust  why. 

After  they  finally  left  us,  in  looking  about  the 
room,  I  found  fastened  to  the  door  a  card  of  rates 
and  prices  and  for  each  of  our  rooms,  four  dol- 
lars per  day  was  the  advertised  charge,  meals  ex- 
tra. 

This  was  a  knock-out. 

My  brother  had  financed  this  expedition  from 
his  savings  as  a  soldier,  drawing  thirteen  dollars 
per  month,  and  the  whole  fund  would  be  put  out 
of  sight  immediately  if  these  charges  were  to  be 
met. 

I  held  a  consultation  with  my  sister  and  we 
agreed  that  something  must  be  done. 

So  I  walked  down  stairs  and  to     the     clerk's 

20 


office  and  told  my  story,  which  in  the  main  was 
that  I  had  come  to  their  hotel  without  knowing 
anything  of  its  terms  and  that  we  were  bound 
south  to  see  a  disabled  soldier  and  had  hardly 
enough  money  for  our  fares,  and  if  he  would  let 
us  out  without  charge  and  tell  us  some  cheap  re- 
spectable hotel  we  could  go  to,  we  should  appre- 
ciate it  very  much  indeed. 

He  wanted  to  know  how  much  we  expected  to 
pay  and  I  told  him  the  limit  we  could  spare 
would  be  two  dollars. 

"All  right,"  he  said,  "stay  here  for  that." 

That  I  thanked  him,  goes  without  saying. 

We  did  not  have  to  be  called  in  the  morning 
and  when  it  was  fairly  light  we  walked  out  upon 
the  street,  enquiring  our  way  to  the  steamboat 
landing  for  Fortress  Monroe. 

We  had  a  long  walk  but  finally  got  there,  and 
were  told  the  boat  did  not  go  out  till  towards 
night  and  passengers  were  not  allowed  aboard 
till  near  sailing  time,  and  must  then  show  passes, 
etc.  I  had  had  such  good  luck  at  the  hotel  that 
I  did  not  intend  to  fall  down  here,  so  I  asked  for 
an  officer  of  the  boat,  and  told  my  story,  and  while 
he  had  no  right  to  let  anyone  aboard  without  a 
pass,  he  consented  that  my  sister  and  baby  could 
sit  in  the  cabin  until  I  got  my  pass  and  failing 
to  get  a  pass,  I  would  remove  the  whole  outfit 
ashore  without  trouble. 

I  went  to  the  Provost  Marshal's  Office  at  eight 
o'clock,  and  found  a  jam  of  more  than  a  hun- 

21 


dred  there,  waiting  to  get  in.  They  were  all  col- 
ors, shapes  and  sizes,  male  and  female. 

I  finally  got  into  the  office,  but  as  my  ability 
to  secure  a  pass  was  founded  on  the  personal 
letter  to  Col.  Fish,  I  had  to  wait  until  he  came 
in. 

At  about  eleven  o'clock  he  came,  and  I  got  a 
pass  to  Fortress  Monroe  only,  while  I  expected 
one  to  Norfolk. 

With  this  pass  I  returned  to  the  steamboat  and 
secured  passage  to  Fortress  Monroe. 

My  pass  from  Baltimore  ordered  me  to  report 
in  person  to  General  B.  F.  Butler,  the  command- 
ing general,  who,  if  so  disposed,  would  pass  mn 
on,  but  they  were  restricting  passes  and  I  might 
have  trouble  upon  arriving  at  the  Fortress. 

I  left  my  sister  and  all  of  our  accessories 
aboard  of  the  steamboat  and  went  to  the  General's 
Office. 

He  received  me  in  person,  questioned  me  close- 
ly, and  gave  me  a  pass  to  Norfolk. 

With  this  pass  I  again  went  back  to  the  steam- 
boat, but  since  it  was  not  to  leave  for  four  hours, 
and  it  being  dull,  I  went  ashore,  after  reporting 
to  my  sister  that  I  had  fortunately  secured  our 
pass,  and  walked  along  the  beach,  down  by  the 
big  fort.  On  a  sand  point  ahead  of  me  I  saw 
a  very  large  cannon  mounted  on  an  iron  frame- 
work some  fifteen  feet  high  and  iron  steps  lead- 
ing up  to  it. 

This  gun  was  between  the  ocean  and  the  fort, 

22 


which  was  quite  high  above  it. 

From  the  top  of  the  fort  to  the  gun  was  prob- 
ably twenty  rods.  At  this  time  the  wind  blew 
quite  a  gale  ashore  and  as  I  went  to  the  gun  and 
saw  the  steps  leading  up  I  thought  it  would  be 
interesting  to  go  up  them  and  examine  it  "first- 
hand," as  it  were.  I  think  I  had  gotten  more 
than  half  way  up,  when  a  darkey,  hauling  sand 
from  a  point  half  way  between  the  gun  and  the 
base  of  the  fort,  attracted  my  attention  by  his 
loud  calls,  and  as  I  stopped  on  my  ascent  to  lis- 
ten to  him,  he  said,  "Better  come  down,  massa, 
they'll  shoot." 

I  looked  up  over  him  to  the  fort  and  on  top 
were  some  twenty  men  with  guns  at  their  shoulders 
and  apparently  pointed  my  way. 

I  immediately  came  down  and  the  negro  said 
they  had  ordered  me  three  times  to  keep  away 
from  the  gun  and  as  I  had  paid  no  attention,  they 
were  getting  ready  to  shoot. 

The  wind  had  prevented  me  from  hearing  their 
call. 

They  supposed  I  was  going  to  spike  the  gun, 
and  in  those  days  a  man's  life  was  not  very  valu- 
able anyhow. 

Well,  I  thanked  the  darkey  who  had  undoubt- 
edly saved  my  life  and  the  steamboat  was  good 
enough  for  me  to  stay  in  during  the  rest  of  the 
delay  at  the  Fortress. 

We  arrived  in  Norfolk  and  found  my  brother 
able  to  be  up  around  but  not  able  to  report  at 


the  Go's  headquarters. 

As  I  was  well  acquainted  with  many  of  the  men 
and  officers  of  Co.  C.,  I  was  allowed  to  wear  my 
brother's  uniform,  draw  his  rations,  and  in  fact 
did  duty  for  some  time  as  a  hospital  steward. 

As  some  days  I  wore  civilian  clothes,  and  some- 
times a  uniform,  I  was  enabled  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  most  parts  of  the  city  of  Norfolk 
and  the  surrounding  country. 

I  got  a  pass  one  day  to  go  over  to  Suffolk  to 
see  the  Navy  Yard  that  had  been  pretty  well  de- 
stroyed April  21st,  1861,  and  this  was  of  course 
granted  me  in  civilian  clothes. 

In  looking  around  Suffolk,  I  saw  a  large  ves- 
sel with  many  guns  lying  at  the  dock,  and  I  was 
interested  to  go  aboard. 

There  was  a  gang  plank  leading  to  her  deck 
and  a  man  with  a  musket  and  bayonet  attached 
paced,  or  walked  across  the  entrance.  Why  1 
waited  till  he  got  to  the  end  of  his  beat  I  do  not 
know,  but  I  know  I  did,  and  then  stepped  aboard, 
and  was  out  of  sight  before  he  turned. 

I  walked  the  length  of  the  ship  and  as  I  came 
back  I  seemed  to  be  attracting  considerable  atten- 
tion. 

Many  men  were  stationed  at  small  tables  ap- 
parently making  and  comparing  maps  of  some 
kind  and  they  seemed  quite  surprised  to  see  me. 

I  accordingly  made  for  the  gangway  and  I 
think  I  went  faster  than  a  walk  but  not  fast  enough 
to  escape  the  point  of  a  bayonet  that  not  only 

24 


damaged  my  pants,  but  drew  blood  enough  to  en- 
title me  to  a  pension,  only  the  location  of  my 
wound  prevented  my  ever  making  application. 

I  took  part  in  one  or  two  little  raids  made  by 
the  Co  that  resulted  in  the  confiscation  of  a  few 
pumpkins  and  they  were  called  by  the  boys  "pump- 
kin raids." 

During  my  stay  in  Norfolk  which  extended 
over  considerable  time,  a  Connecticut  Lieutenant 
was  drilling  colored  troops  in  the  city,  when  a 
resident  doctor,  David  W.  Wright,  by  name,  came 
out  of  his  office  and  insulted  him. 

The  lieutenant  pushed  him  aside  ind  told  him 
to  keep  away  or  he  would  put  him  under  arrest. 

With  this  the  doctor  drew  a  revolver  and  shot 
him  dead. 

The  doctor  was  arrested,  tried  and  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  be  hanged. 

He  broke  jail  twice,  was  recaptured  arid  in  Sep 
tember,  1862,  was  driven  in  a  hack  behind  his  own 
coffin,  to  the  Fair  Grounds  outside  the  city,  and 
our  regiment  had  the  honor  of  hanging  him.  1 
cut  out  a  piece  of  the  rope  that  strangled  him  and 
have  it  yet.  The  lieutenant  whom  he  shot  had 
a  wife  and  two  children  and  although  it  did  not 
give  him  back  to  them,  I  have  always  felt  that 
it  eased  their  loss. 

I  have  always  kept  up  my  acquaintance  with 
many  of  the  survivors  of  this  company  and  when, 
on  October  20th,  1898,  a  monument  was  erected 
in  New  London  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the 

25 


regiment,  I  received  a  special  invitation  to  attend 
the  exercises. 

It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Thaddeus  Pecor 
of  Noank  offered  a  resolution  that  hereafter  I 
should  be  legally  known  as  a  member  of  the 
company  and  moved  that  I  be  received  and  entered 
on  the  roll  as  a  "Daughter  of  the  Regiment." 

This  would  have  passed  unanimously,  had  not 
General  Taylor,  a  well  known  and  conspicuous 
officer  of  the  company  objected,  on  the  grounds 
that  while  I  had  been  wounded  in  the  service,  the 
location  of  the  wound  was  not  commendatory, 
and  would  detract  rather  than  add  to  their  fighting 
record. 

That  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding,  I  wish 
to  state  clearly  the  fact  that  I  am  not  legally  num- 
bered with  the  survivors. 

We  had  less  trouble  in  coming  North  than  we 
had  in  going  South,  and  our  baggage  was  better 
arranged. 

Soon  after  coming  home  I  entered  school  and  at- 
tended till  the  last  Friday  in  December,  1862. 

The  Monday  following,  at  4  A.  M.  I  started  with 
Elisha  D.  Wightman  for  Wisconsin. 

Without  explanation  this  would  seem  sudden  and 
though  it  was  sudden  I  feel  an  explanation  is  nec- 
essary to  understand  this  real  turning  point  in  my 
life. 

The  last  Sunday  in  December,  1862,  I  went  up 
to  the  village  in  the  evening  to  attend  Divine  Serv- 
ice in  the  Baptist  Church,  previously  alluded  to, 

26 


as  was  my  usual  custom,  and  seeing  a  light  in  one 
of  the  stores  which  was  a  most  unusual  sight  of  a 
Sunday  night,  I  stepped  inside  and  found  Mr. 
Wightman,  before  mentioned,  buying  a  full  box  of 
Lillenthral's  Fine  Cut  Chewing  Tobacco. 

A  gentleman  that  had  followed  me  in  said  to 
Mr.  Wightman,  "Buying  tobacco  heavy,  aren't 
you?" 

"Yes,"  he  answered,  "I  start  west  in  the  morn- 
ing and  want  a  good  stock." 

"Who  is  going  with  you?"  was  then  asked. 

"Going  alone,"  he  replied,  "unless  Charlie  Q. 
goes  with  me,"  turning  to  me  and  continuing, 
"how  would  you  like  it?" 

I  told  him  I  guessed  I  would  like  it  all  right 
and  asked  where  he  was  going. 

He  said  "Wisconsin,"  and  asked  me  into  his 
house. 

I  spent  the  evening  there  instead  of  in  church 
and  agreed  with  him  to  start  for  Wisconsin  the 
next  morning,  he  to  pay  all  expenses  and  deliver 
me  back  in  Mystic  one  year  from  date  on  a  salary 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  provided 
I  could  get  the  consent  of  my  parents  which  I 
thought  I  could. 

I  went  home  and  it  was  more  of  a  job  than  I 
had  anticipated  to  get  their  consent. 

They  were  getting  advanced  in  years,  but  as  my 
brother's  wife  was  with  them  I  used  her  presence 
as  a  lever  to  boost  my  argument  and  won  out. 

Up  to  this  time  I  had  never  worn  woolen  under- 

27 


wear  and  I  might  truthfully  add,  no  other  kind, 
and  the  boys  of  my  acquaintance  showed  that  I 
was  no  exception. 

We  drove  from  the  village  to  Groton  Bank, 
took  the  ferry  to  New  London,  the  Central  Vermont 
north,  and  the  Canadian  Route  to  Chicago. 

The  second  day  out  at  4  A.  M.  a  rail  broke  and 
derailed  our  train,  the  car  Mr.  Wightman  and  I 
were  in  rolling  down  an  embankment,  turning 
over  three  times  and  killed  or  wounded  every  per- 
son in  the  car  except  Mr.  Wightman  and  myself; 
and  this  escape  for  us  was  because  we,  without 
thought,  put  our  hands  under  the  seat  and  held 
rigidly  when  the  car  made  its  turns. 

The  car  was  equipped  with  stoves,  as  all  cars 
in  those  days  were  and  fire  destroyed  the  wreck,  as 
was  also  the  usual  custom. 

Thermometers  in  Chicago  were  thirty-four  be- 
low zero,  but  I  had  no  chance  to  get  underwear 
till  we  arrived  in  Milwaukee. 

A  short  stop  here  and  then  west  on  the  M.  and 
St.  Paul  railroad  to  New  Lisbon,  where  Mr. 
Wightman  stopped. 

Then  by  team  I  went  twelve  miles  north  to  our 
headquarters,  Werner,  Wisconsin. 

My  real  introduction  to  the  woolly  west  was 
when  I  was  dumped  out  of  the  sled  at  Werner, 
onto  the  front  porch  of  the  hotel. 

I  found  that  the  landlord  was  shut  into  his  room 
with  smallpox,  that  the  man  who  usually  cooked 
had  started  the  day  before  for  the  doctor  who  was 


twelve  miles  away  and  had  not  yet  returned. 

There  was  a  wood  fire  in  the  bar  room  and  a 
pile  of  long  wood  out  of  doors,  and  the  snow  some 
three  feet  deep. 

Water  for  the  hotel  was  taken  from  a  well 
thirty  feet  deep,  nearby,  and  hoisted  up  with  a 
windlass. 

I  found  in  this  well  a  pole  with  a  chisel  on  the 
lower  end  to  cut  the  ice  before  water  could  be 
taken  from  it. 

Mr.  Wightman's  interest  in  this  section  was  de- 
rived from  the  foreclosure  by  his  bank  of  a  mort- 
gage on  pine  lands  which  he  purposed  to  develop. 

The  general  custom  was  to  take  a  crew  of  some 
twenty-five  men  and  several  ox-teams  in  the  fall 
and  go  up  the  river  some  eighty  miles,  build  a 
camp  and  a  cattle  shed,  and  when  the  snow  came, 
have  more  teams,  both  oxen  and  horses,  haul  the 
logs  to  the  river  and  when  the  snow  melted  and 
the  freshet  came  in  the  spring,  drive  the  logs  down 
the  river  to  the  mill. 

As  we  did  not  get  there  till  January,  it  was  late 
to  make  a  start,  but  Mr.  Wightman  wanted  to  put 
in  one  camp  anyhow,  and  so  after  a  few  days  at 
this  hotel,  I  was  sent  on  with  some  twenty  men 
and  four  teams  to  build  a  camp  and  go  to  log- 
ging- 

An  experienced  state-of-Maine  lumberman   was 

boss  of  the  outfit,  and  my  position  was  the  same 
as  that  of  the  other  Irishmen  and  Kanucks  which 
made  up  the  crew. 

29 


It  was  a  hard  trip. 

I  wore  the  boots  that  I  had  brought  from  Con- 
necticut and  the  second  day  out  my  feet  and  legs, 
to  nearly  my  knees  were  frozen  badly. 

My  boots  were  cut  off  any  my  feet  and  legs 
soaked  in  kerosene  oil. 

In  a  few  days  I  could  get  around,  but  it  was 
many  years  before  I  ever  attempted  to  wear  a 
boot. 

Moccasins  in  that  climate  were  necessary,  for 
unless  the  joints  work  the  foot  will  freeze. 

To  build  a  camp  in  three  to  four  feet  of  snow 
with  the  mercury  twenty-eight  to  thirty-five  below 
zero,  was  a  serious  job. 

This  camp  was  thirty  feet  square,  built  with  one 
log  only  outside  and  then  drawn  in  like  a  A 

There  was  a  place  for  fire  in  the  center  6x10 
feet  and  a  hole  through  the  roof,  4x10  feet  logged 
up  like  a  chimney.  • 

A  constant  fire  burned  all  the  time,  using 
about  one  and  a  half  cords  of  wood  every  twen- 
ty-four hours,  yet  in  the  drinking  water  barrel,  in 
this  camp,  I  saw  ice  make  four  inches  in  one 
night. 

We  slept  on  the  ground  under  the  edge  of  the 
roof  with  feet  towards  the  fire,  close  together  as 
we  could  lie  and  none  too  many  blankets  over 
us. 

The  blankets  were  all  sewed  together  and  the 
"end  man"  was  allowed  enough  to  tuck  under  and 

30 


"clinch." 

I  worked  that  winter  as  a  "swamper,"  did  a 
man's  work  and  kept  my  eyes  open. 

We  lived  on  salt  beef,  salt  pork,  beans,  hot 
wheat  bread  every  meal,  tea  and  sorgum  molas- 
ses. 

No  vegetables,  no  coffee,  no  sugar,  no  butter. 

There  was  no  sickness  and  men  went  out  to  work 
in  the  morning  while  the  stars  still  shone,  and 
never  came  in  till  they  saw  them  again,  except  for 
a  thirty-minute  stop  for  dinner. 

No  card  playing  was  allowed,  and  no  talking 
after  nine  o'clock. 

In  the  spring,  I  did  not  stay  for  the  long  drive 
but  went  down  to  the  settlement  to  help  get  the  mill 
ready  for  sawing. 

It  was  eighty  miles  by  "tote  road"  from  the  set- 
tlement where  the  mill  was  located  to  the  pinery, 
and  one  hundred  miles  by  the  river. 

Supplies  were  hauled  by  horse  teams  which 
made  regular  trips  each  week  and  they  also  brought 
the  mail  for  the  men. 

My  first  winter  in  the  woods  is  remarkable  in 
looking  back  upon  it  for  just  one  thing;  that  I 
really  survived  it. 

Of  course  no  one  was  expected  to  die  in  camp, 
and  so  the  crew  was  selected,  to  so  far  as  possible, 
avoid  that  possibility. 

But  I  had  not  been  selected,  and  was  really  a 
curiosity  to  the  men,  and  a  constant  source  of 
wonder  as  to  how  I  would  go  thru  the  winter. 

31 


After  the  first  few  days  that  my  frozen  feet  and 
legs  bothered  me  I  never  lost  an  hour's  time  while 
in  camp. 

As  I  acted  for  the  boss  as  time-keeper,  and  had 
charge  of  the  "Wongen  Box"  where  clothing  and 
tobacco  was  sold  to  the  crew,  some  little  respect 
was  shown  me  as  being  in  a  small  degree  the  rep- 
resentative of  the  owners. 

Sundays  were  spent  in  washing  clothes  by  some 
of  the  boys,  and  writing  letters  to  friends. 

A  lot  of  the  crew  did  not  consider  either  neces- 
sary. 

Upon  my  return  to  the  village  in  the  spring,  I 
was  sent  to  the  same  hotel  and  found  the  landlord 
that  had  the  smallpox,  on  duty  but  badly  pox 
marked. 

Gurdon  S.  Allyn  of  Mystic  was  in  the  village 
when  I  came  down  and  I  then  learned  for  the  first 
time  that  he  held  a  controlling  interest  in  the  bus- 
iness which  was  known  as  E.  D.  Wightman  &  Co. 
George  F.  Langworthy  of  Mystic  was  the  third 
partner. 

Mr.  Allyn,  in  talking  with  me,  seemed  to  assume 
that  I  ought  to  know  all  about  the  business  and 
gave  me  to  understand  that  he  should  expect  me 
to  look  out  for  things  and  report  to  him. 

As  I  was  but  a  boy,  and  he  had  three  bosses 
that  he  was  paying  seventy  dollars  a  month,  I  could 
hardly  see  how  I  could  meet  his  requirements,  es- 
pecially as  I  was  "green." 

He  stayed  only  a  few  days,  but  he  gave  the 


impression  to  the  people  of  Werner  that  I  was  his 
representative,  and  that  in  matters  connected  with 
the  business  it  would  be  well  to  consult  with  me. 
Besides  this,  the  money  for  payroll  and  expenses 
went  through  my  hands  and  as  this,  at  this  time, 
was  some  ten  thousand  dollars  a  month,  it  had  its 
influence. 

As  the  company  had  not  put  in  logs  enough  to 
keep  the  mill  running  all  summer,  we  contracted 
to  saw  a  few  million  feet  at  five  dollars  per  thou- 
sand. 

Several  saw-mills  were  located  on  this,  the  Yel- 
low River,  and  as  the  logs  came  down  in  the 
drive,  each  log  bearing  the  registered  mark  of  the 
owner,  was  sorted  into  the  "booms"  of  the  re- 
spective mills. 

When  our  logs  reached  the  mill,  we  started 
it  at  six  o'clock  A.  M.  and  at  twelve  stopped 
thirty  minutes  for  dinner;  at  twelve-thirty  started 
again  and  ran  till  six  o'clock,  making  eleven  and 
one  half  hours  of  work. 

Our  mill  was  equipped  with  one  large  double 
rotary,  and  one  sixty-inch  single  rotary,  beside 
edgers,  trimmers,  shingle,  picket,  and  lath  saws. 

Our  average  daily  output  was  eighty  thousand 
feet  of  inch  lumber,  twenty  thousand  shingle, 
thirty  thousand  lath,  and  five  thousand  pickets. 

The  logs  were  all  white  pine,  mostly  sixteen 
feet  long  and  averaged  two,  to  two  and  a  half  to 
the  thousand. 

From  the  mill,  the  lumber,  loaded  on  cars,  was 


run  to  where  it  was  rafted,  a  few  hundred  feet 
from  the  mill. 

When  a  "fleet,"  as  it  was  called,  was  ready,  it 
was  run  or  floated  out  of  the  Yellow  River,  into 
the  Wisconsin,  then  into  the  Mississippi  and  down 
that  river,  till  a  market  was  found,  sometimes  a 
few  hundred  of  miles  only,  and  frequently  to 
Hannibal  or  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

As  I  became  very  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  Mississippi  River  in  later  years,  I  will  at  a  later 
period  of  my  narrative  refer  to  it  again. 

All  through  that  summer  of  1863  I  was  for  the 
most  part  of  the  time  in  the  company's  store,  help- 
ing out  in  the  mill,  and  fitting  into  any  vacancy 
that  arose. 

The  store  was  simply  a  place  where  we  kept 
things  most  needed  for  the  help  and  was  usually 
open  only  evenings. 

There  was  no  other  store  in  the  village,  but  a 
few  years  later  a  large  store  building  was  put  up 
by  the  company  and  Benj.  F.  Miner  of  Mystic  put 
in  charge  of  it,  who  with  half  a  dozen  more  young 
men  from  Connecticut,  had  been  sent  out  by  the 
management. 

At  the  end  of  my  first  year,  January,  1864,  I 
settled  up  with  the  company,  and  of  my  contract 
price,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  I  had 
sixty-two  and  a  half  paid  me  as  balance  due.  I 
was  unable  to  leave  for  a  month,  but  February 
first,  with  ticket  paid  for  by  the  company  as 
agreed,  I  went  home  on  a  visit. 

34 


I  stayed  home  two  weeks,  renewed  my  contract 
at  a  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars  for  the  next 
year  and  returned  to  the  lumber  village. 

The  company  was  running  three  camps  and  had 
about  one  hundred  men  and  twenty  teams  in  the 
woods. 

Before  I  left  Mystic,  Mr.  Allyn  suggested  that 
upon  my  return,  I  go  up  into  the  woods,  visit  the 
several  camps  and  report  to  him  how  I  found 
things. 

I  followed  the  suggestion,  stayed  about  three 
weeks,  visiting  all  of  the  camps  and  noted  as  far 
as  I  was  able,  the  way  they  were  conducted,  and 
the  results. 

Most  certainly  I  offered  few  suggestions,  and  did 
not  make  myself  conspicuous. 

Preparing  for  the  log  drive,  upon  my  return  to 
the  village  and  the  preliminary  work  of  a  big  sea- 
son before  us,  kept  me  very  busy  until  the  logs 
came  down. 

We  had  a  good  drive  and  our  "booms"  were 
full  of  logs. 

Very  much  to  my  surprise,  I  was  told  to  get 
the  mill  ready  for  business  and  start  it  up. 

This  I  proceeded  to  do  and  while  our  mill  and 
rafting  crews  numbered  several  hundred  men,  I 
managed  to  get  them  into  line  and  the  work  pro- 
gressed satisfactorily. 

One  of  the  incidents  that  helped  my  standing 
with  the  crew  came  about  when  our  engineer  gave 
me  notice  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  that  he 

35 


should  only  work  till  twelve  o'clock. 

When  asked  for  the  reason  he  said  he  had  no 
suitable  society,  there  was  nothing  congenial  in  the 
village,  and  he  could  only  stand  it  till  noon. 

I  had  hired  him  from  Milwaukee. 

He  had  a  certificate  from  a  technical  school 
there,  and  a  recommend  from  a  firm  in  whose  em- 
ploy he  had  served. 

We  drove  the  mill  with  a  one  hundred  and  fifty 
horse,  high  power  engine,  fed  from  three  large 
boilers,  in  which  steam  was  made  from  the  saw 
dust  from  the  double  rotary  mill. 

Two  Norwegian  firemen  kept  the  furnace  full. 

The  business  of  the  engineer  was  to  watch  the 
engine  and  particularly  the  bells  that  led  from 
all  around  the  mill,  and  when  rung  meant  "stop 
quick,"  someone  might  be  in  danger. 

The  engine  was  provided  with  a  "starting  bar" 
and  could  be  quickly  reversed. 

I  asked  the  engineer  if  he  could  not  stay  till 
Saturday  night. 

This  was  of  a  Monday  morning. 

He  replied,  "No,  last  Saturday  night  was 
enough  for  me." 

I  intimated  that  I  really  didn't  engage  him  for 
a  society  man  and  our  contract  did  not  mention 
it. 

Words  seemed  useless  and  I  went  down  to  the 
rafting  crew  and  asked  three  men  to  come  up  to 
the  mill  with  me. 

These  three  men  were  brothers,  large,  husky  fel- 

86 


lows,  that  came  from  Canada  the  year  before, 
where  lots  of  our  help  came  from. 

They  were  hard  up  when  I  hired  them  and  they 
had  been  in  the  service  of  the  company  ever  since 
and  had  proved  reliable. 

Early  in  the  spring,  one  of  them  had  fallen  in- 
to the  river  above  a  crib  of  lumber  and  the  current 
had  taken  him  under  the  crib. 

The  four  of  us  were  on  the  crib  when  he  went 
over  and  as  this  crib  was  against  another  below 
it,  he  would  be  kept  under  and  drowned  before  he 
could  get  below  the  rafted  lumber. 

Instantly  I  started  to  make  an  opening  between 
these  cribs,  the  others  helping  me  and  the  two  of 
them  held  the  cribs  apart  while  I  let  myself  down 
into  the  water,  where  I  thought  the  body  would 
come. 

It  struck  my  legs  almost  at  once,  and  holding 
to  the  lumber  with  one  hand,  with  the  other  I 
reached  down  and  brought  him  up. 

It  was  a  close  squeak  but  he  came  out  all  right 
and  the  brothers  always  seemed  to  feel  that  they 
could  not  do  enough  for  me.  I  have  told  this 
story  simply  to  show  why  I  picked  these  men. 

When  I  had  them  away  from  the  crew,  I  told 
them  about  the  engineer  and  told  them  I  relied 
on  them  to  help  me. 

The  first  thing  they  asked  me  was  if  I  wanted 
them  "to  break  him  up." 

Maybe  I  did  not  know  just  what  they  meant, 
but  I  told  them,  as  he  did  not  like  the  society 

37 


here,  I  simply  wanted  them  to  remove  him  from  it, 
and  they  were  to  see  that  he  went  immediately 
to  his  boarding  house,  secured  his  "kennebecker" 
and  walked  out  of  the  village,  over  the  big  bridge. 

That  was  all;  would  they  do  it? 

"You  bet  we  will!"  they  replied. 

So  we  went  into  the  basement  of  the  mill  where 
the  engine  was  located  and  asking  the  engineer  to 
step  out  with  us,  I  handed  him  seventy- five  cents 
in  silver  and  told  him  that  was  his  pay  up  to  ten 
o'clock  and  that  he  was  excused. 

He  tried  to  talk  but  I  informed  him  that  the 
men  with  him  would  go  with  him  to  his  boarding 
house  and  keep  with  him  till  he  got  his  traps  and 
then  go  with  him  out  of  the  village  and  across  the 
big  bridge,  and  my  advice  to  him  would  be  "Keep 
on  going." 

It  was  only  twelve  miles  to  the  next  village 
so  he  could  easily  reach  it  before  night. 

I  told  the  boys  in  his  presence  that  if  he  hung 
back  at  all  for  two  of  them  to  take  each  an  arm 
and  the  third  to  walk  behind  with  one  foot  mostly 
in  the  air. 

The  instructions  were  implicitly  followed  and  I 
never  heard  of  him  after  that  day. 

I  had  never  run  an  engine  in  my  life  but  as 
there  was  no  man  in  the  crew  competent,  I  handled 
it  for  some  eleven  days,  till  I  got  a  man  from  New 
Lisbon,  and  most  luckily  I  made  good. 

Another  matter  came  up  this  season  that  attract- 
ed considerable  attention. 

38 


Mrs.  B.  F.  Miner 


Our  double  rotary  was  sawing  about  fifty  thou- 
sand feet  a  day  and  as  I  watched  it,  I  was  sure  it 
could  do  more. 

So  I  gave  the  "tail  sawyer"  another  job  and  I 
took  his  place  for  four  weeks,  learning  the  busi- 
ness, or  trying  my  best  to. 

At  the  end  of  that  period  I  had  the  old  tail 
sawyer  come  back  and  sent  the  head  sawyer  down 
on  the  rafting  platform,  and  I  took  his  place. 

After  my  first  week,  the  record  for  the  three 
months  I  handled  the  saw  was  fifty-nine  thousand, 
eight  hundred  and  seventy  feet  per  day. 

After  the  mill  closed  for  the  season,  I  went 
down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  on  a  raft  and 
came  back  to  get  ready  for  the  winter's  logging. 

B.  F.  Miner  was  running  the  store  and  keeping 
the  books. 

He  got  married  and  this  step  added  much  to  my 
comfort,  for  they  kept  house  over  the  new  store 
and  I  was  taken  in,  both  as  a  boarder  and  as  a 
friend. 

And  right  here  I  want  to  say  that  Mrs.  Miner 
was  a  great  lover  of  books  and  one  of,  if  not  the 
best  educated  women  I  have  ever  met. 

She  seemed  to  think  she  could  improve  me  edu- 
cationally in  many  ways,  and  as  I  look  back  I  can 
readily  see  that  the  need  was  very  apparent. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  narrative  I  had  consid- 
erable to  say  about  attending  the  village  school, 
but  I  did  not  say  that  the  studies  were  chosen  in 
the  main  by  the  pupil. 

39 


This,  however,  was  true,  and  personally  the 
three  R's  were  my  limit. 

Geography,  Grammar,  Algebra  and  History, 
though  studied  by  some  in  the  school,  were  never 
studied  by  me,  and  while  in  hearing  them  recite 
I  caught  on  to  the  fact  that  Connecticut  was  one  of 
the  eastern  states  and  that  there  was  a  lot  in  the 
Grammar  about  "he  loves,  she  loves,  and  they  both 
love,"  I  got  none  of  it  first  hand. 

Having  so  few  studies,  I  naturally  ought  to  have 
excelled  in  them,  but  in  all  but  Arithmetic  I  was 
only  ordinary. 

In  Arithmetic  I  was  at  the  head  of  our  class. 

I  still  have  some  sixty  "Rewards  of  Merit"  given 
me  by  several  teachers,  and  I  would  like  to  ask 
those  of  the  boys  who  were  in  my  class  and  are 
still  alive,  if  they  can  show  as  many. 

My  close  acquaintance  with  Mrs.  Miner  lasted 
over  fifty  years  and  up  to  her  death,  a  year  or  so 
ago,  we  were  always  the  best  of  friends. 

Positions  that  I  have  been  called  upon  to  fill, 
and  lines  of  work  that  I  have  been  called  upon  to 
perform,  could  never  have  been  prosecuted  suc- 
cessfully, had  it  not  been  for  the  educational  help 
which  she  gave  me  in  the  sixties. 

For  two  or  three  years  before  going  to  Mr. 
Miner's  to  board,  I  had  been  a  boarder  in  the  fam- 
ily of  Dr.  L.  W,  Bacon,  who  also  boarded  some 
other  of  the  Mystic  boys. 

They  were  state-of-Maine  people  and  the  "salt 
of  the  earth." 

40 


Miss  Virginia  L.  Bacon 


The  Post  Office  was  in  their  house  and  I  was 
Deputy  Postmaster. 

They  had  two  girls  in  their  family,  the  old- 
est about  seventeen,  named  Virginia,  and  as  hand- 
some as  girls  are  usually  made. 

All  of  us  Mystic  boys  were  in  love  with  her  and 
she  "wound  the  whole  of  us  around  her  finger," 
as  the  saying  is. 

How  she  could  have  held  the  lot  of  us  as  she 
did  is  still  a  wonder  to  me. 

It  was  a  pleasant  place  to  live  and  we  were 
a  very  happy  company. 

When  the  most  of  us  had  left  Wisconsin,  she 
married  one  of  the  Mystic  boys,  the  best  one, 
of  course,  and  she  and  her  husband  have  since 
visited  my  family  here  in  Mystic. 

An  old  log  school  house  in  bad  repair  and  lit- 
tle used  was  situated  just  outside  the  village  limits 
at  the  North,  and  the  New  England  temperament 
of  the  lumber  company  induced  them  to  build  a 
nice  frame  school  house  in  the  village  and  paint 
it  white,  all  at  their  own  expense. 

Every  Sunday  morning  we  held  Sabbath  school 
in  this  building,  and  strange  as  it  seems  to  write 
it,  for  years  I  was  the  superintendent  of  the  school. 

Miss  Virginia  Bacon  directed  the  singing  and  I 
think  it  was  to  see  her  and  hear  her  sing,  that  al- 
ways gave  us  a  good  attendance. 

When  the  weather  was  fairly  favorable  we  had  a 
preaching  service  in  the  afternoon. 

This  was  conducted  by  Rev.  E.  G.  Piersons  of 

41 


New  Lisbon. 

He  had  to  walk  some  twelve  miles  to  reach  the 
village  but  I  do  not  remember  that  he  ever  inti- 
mated that  he  was  tired,  and  I  do  remember  that 
his  sermon  was  full  of  life  and  suggestions  so 
practical  and  sensible  that  he  was  listened  to  with 
the  closest  attention. 

In  all  the  years  he  preached  to  us  I  never  learn- 
ed what  denomination  he  belonged  to,  but  he  gave 
us  evidence  that  he  represented  that  church  spoken 
of  in  the  New  Testament  whose  mission  was  to  do 
good  and  help  your  fellow  man. 

If  the  community  was  not  improved  morally 
and  spiritually  by  his  teachings,  it  was  not  for 
lack  of  good  example. 

He  was  hired  for  no  salary,  and  there  were  times 
when  his  cash  receipts  were  very  light. 

At  one  time  B.  F.  Miner,  desiring  to  get  up  a 
donation  in  his  interest,  advertised  a  big  dance  in 
the  hotel,  stipulating  that  the  "bar"  should  be 
closed  and  some  eighty  dollars  was  realized  from 
this  social  event. 

At  another  time  a  wrestling  match  between  two 
burly  raftsmen  was  timed  to  come  off  on  Sunday, 
and  it  did,  and  the  winner  divided  his  ten  dollars 
with  the  preacher,  telling  him  he  had  earned  it 
"by  the  sweat  of  his  brow." 

No  collections  were  ever  taken  up  in  church 
and  as  a  rule  the  money  paid  the  minister  was 
chipped  in  mostly  by  us  Mystic  boys. 

While  none  of  us  as  I  remember  belonged  to 

42 


Rev.  E.  E.  Piersons 


any  church,  we  had  all  been  "raised"  in  New 
England  and  as  far  as  my  observation  has  ex- 
tended, boys  brought  up  there  seem  to  require 
something  in  the  way  of  church  service  and  an 
observation  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

The  walk  of  twelve  miles  and  the  preaching 
service  in  the  afternoon  never  prevented  the  Elder 
from  making  a  trip  around  the  village,  calling  on 
the  sick,  cheering  them  with  words  and  many  times 
helping  them  from  his  very  small  store,  and  then 
walking  back  the  twelve  miles  home  again. 

He  had  an  educational  position  through  the 
week  and  I  presume  his  regular  duties  and  his 
walk  of  twenty-four  miles  almost  every  Sunday, 
kept  him  so  fit  that  even  the  thoughts  of  a  vacation 
never  worried  him;  he  certainly  during  my  ac- 
quaintance with  him  never  had  one. 

It  was  the  wish  of  the  company  that  I  take  one 
of  the  camps  the  winter  of  '64  and  '65  and  run 
it. 

Their  wish  had  up  to  this  time  been  my  law, 
but  I  thought  this  was  a  little  more  than  I  ought 
to  undertake. 

I  cared  nothing  for  the  hard  work,  and  knew  I 
could  stand  it  to  be  eighty  miles  from  a  settlement 
for  five  months;  but  it  was  the  unwritten  law  that 
no  one  could  run  a  camp  but  a  State-of-Maine  man 
and  he,  to  be  qualified,  must  have  had  years  of 
training. 

To  take  advantage  of  all  favorable  conditions, 
to  be  weatherwise,  to  drive  the  crew  to  the  limit, 

43 


and  still  keep  their  good  will,  to  properly  order 
the  supplies,  to  arrange  the  logging  roads  and 
cut  the  proper  "Sections"  owned  by  the  company 
which  the  boss  was  also  supposed  to  survey  and 
run  out,  to  keep  up  the  tools,  make  an  occasional 
ox-yoke,  ax-handle,  sled  runner,  or  weld  a  chain 
link  with  thick  pine  bark  for  the  fire,  all  of  this 
was  supposed  to  be  done  by  the  boss,  and  beside, 
if  the  man  cook  did  not  do  the  cooking  properly, 
he  was  to  be  shown  the  right  way  by  the  boss. 

Now  when  you  think  this  over,  for  a  boy  of  less 
than  twenty,  with  the  little  experience  I  had  had, 
to  assume  all  of  this,  made  me  hesitate. 

However,  I  went  up  with  my  crew,  built  my 
camp  and  outbuildings  and  put  in  the  hardest  win- 
ter of  my  life. 

I  did  make  an  ox  yoke,  ax-helves,  a  lot  of  them, 
I  did  survey  the  timber  land,  was  lost  two  days, 
but  ran  into  a  camp  of  Winnibago  Indians,  fed 
up  on  dried  muskrats  and  came  out  O.  K. 

My  hardest  fight  was  to  overcome  the  jealousy 
of  those  who  felt  they  ought  to  hold  my  posi- 
tion. 

The  great  majority  of  my  crew  were  faithful  to 
me,  however,  and  our  winter's  work  tallied  out 
more  logs  than  any  camp  equally  situated  on  the 
river. 

When  my  year  was  up  the  company  advanced 
my  wages  to  a  thousand  a  year  and  that  continued 
while  I  was  with  them. 

I  did  not  join  the  log  drive  in  the  spring  as  the 

44 


Governor  had  commissioned  me  to  "scale,"  or 
measure  logs  at  the  sorting  booms.  This  scaling 
or  measuring  of  logs  was  a  pretty  lively  job  and 
attended  with  many  difficulties. 

The  tool  used  was  a  straight  stick  or  rule,  forty- 
eight  inches  long  with  plain  one  inch  marks  and 
figures  beginning  at  one  end,  and  continuing  to 
the  other  end. 

On  the  lower  end  of  the  stick  was  a  hook  or 
bracket  about  three  inches  long  that  you  caught 
under  the  log  and  sung  out  the  figure  that  the 
rule  indicated  on  top  of  the  log,  which  figure  was 
duly  recorded  by  the  clerk. 

Each  lumber  company,  logging  on  the  river  had 
their  registered  log  mark. 

The  one  our  company  owned  was  IIVII  and  this 
was  "ax  cut"  into  the  side  of  the  log  and  the  log 
was  also  end-marked  with  a  setting  maul. 

At  the  first  boom  up  the  river  some  80  miles 
from  camp,  the  owner  of  that  mill  had  his  logs 
selected  or  sorted  from  the  others,  and  the  mills 
down  stream  had  their  logs  released  to  come  to 
them,  and  this  process  took  place  at  each  mill. 
Ours  was  the  fifth,  down  from  the  first.  » 

The  man  who  scaled  the  logs  had  to  see  the 
mark  and  call  that,  as  he  did  the  measurement,  for 
the  logs  were  all  driven  by  the  thousand  feet. 

To  jump  onto  a  log,  roll  it  over,  see  the  mark 
and  call  it  off  at  the  same  time,  to  measure  the 
length  with  your  eye  and  call  that  too,  was  a  pretty 
good  illustration  of  the  text  "step  lively,"  for  the 

45 


water  was  always  rapid,  and  very  wet,  and  the 
logs  coming  swiftly,  and  sometimes  a  small  one 
would  go  under  water  before  you  could  catch  the 
measure. 

So  the  job  was  anything  but  desirable,  and  the 
applicants  were  very  few. 

The  company  thought  it  would  be  in  their  inter- 
est to  provide  a  man  for  this  work  and  so  as  before 
said  the  Governor  commissioned  me,  and  I  filled 
the  position  with  credit  to  the  company  which  I 
represented. 

When  the  mill  was  ready  to  start  I  insisted  on 
running  the  big  saw;  and  with  a  brother  of  Gurdon 
Allyn's  to  superintend,  I  ran  the  saw  all  of  that 
season. 

In  the  fall  I  made  two  trips  on  lumber  down  the 
river,  selling  the  same  and  returning  with  the 
money. 

In  those  days  the  Mississippi  River  was  not 
merely  a  highway  by  name,  and  from  St.  Louis 
to  LaCrosse,  lines  of  steamers  made  regular  trips 
and  the  river  was  full  of  life  and  activity. 

I  have  seen  six  side  and  stern  wheel  steamboats 
at  one  time  in  motion  up  and  down  the  river,  and 
lumber  rafts  containing  from  one  to  three  million 
feet  of  lumber  were  a  common  sight. 

At  that  time  the  only  railroad  bridge  across  the 
river  was  at  Rock  Island;  a  few  years  ago  when  I 
made  the  trip  from  St.  Louis  to  St.  Paul,  we  went 
through  twenty-eight  bridges. 

The  railroads  have  taken  the  river  traffic  and 

46 


many  of  the  river  towns  have  gone  into  the  discard. 

Handsome  side  wheel  steamers  like  the  Andy 
Johnson,  Harry  Johnson  and  the  Minnesota  gave 
you  passage  and  regular  meals  at  about  two  and 
a  half  dollars  a  day;  and  many  stern  wheelers  of 
which  the  Phil  Sheridan  was  the  most  popular 
boat,  kept  the  water  constantly  stirred  up. 

Their  management  was  carried  on  as  much  in  the 
interest  of  the  patrons  as  of  the  owners,  and  many 
a  time  I  signalled  one  of  these  big  boats  from  my 
raft  and  they  would  send  a  boat  and  four  men 
to  take  me  aboard  to  go  down  the  river  with  them. 

My  object  was  to  go  to  some  town  further  down 
and  make  sale  of  the  lumber. 

Every  raft  had  its  own  special  flag,  and  coming 
back  up  the  river  any  steamer  would  stop  and  send 
a  boat  with  me  to  my  raft  if  desired,  which  raft 
I  had  located  by  its  flag. 

For  some  eight  years  the  Mississippi  River,  dur- 
ing the  rafting  season  was  my  home. 

To  procure  subsistence  for  the  crew,  find  mar- 
kets for  the  lumber  and  pay  off  the  men,  were  my 
most  important  duties. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  old  time  rafts- 
men and  Mississippi  steamboat  men  were  the 
roughest,  toughest,  and  all-round  meanest  combin- 
ation that  ever  existed. 

My  experience  would  lead  me  to  agree  with  this 
classification,  but  I  should  insist  on  exceptions. 

I  remember  when  our  raft  was  tied  up  at  Mus- 
catine,  Iowa,  that  every  man,  and  there  were  over 

47 


thirty,  left  me  alone  on  the  fleet  while  they  went 
ashore  to  spend  the  night  at  cheap  hotels  and  rum 
holes. 

When  the  trip  was  ended  many  of  the  men  would 
not  have  a  dollar  in  wages  coming  to  them,  but  it 
was  a  part  of  the  contract  that  they  were  entitled 
to  "back  pay,"  which  meant  buying  them  a  return 
ticket  to  the  place  we  hired  them,  and  by  the  law 
we  were  obliged  to  buy  the  ticket  rather  than  give 
them  its  cost,  in  money. 

I  might  as  well  say  right  here  that  when  I  en- 
tered the  hotel  in  Werner  in  1863  and  received  the 
intelligence  of  the  landlord's  sickness  with  small 
pox,  it  was  told  me  by  several  drunken  bums  that 
were  piled  up  in  various  shapes  and  conditions 
in  the  bar  room,  and  their  very  cordial  invitation 
to  drink  with  them  was  refused,  and  for  nearly 
the  ten  years  I  was  in  and  around  that  country  I 
never  tasted  a  glass  of  rum  or  beer. 

The  only  credit  that  is  due  me  for  this  is,  that 
I  had  engaged  in  this  business  to  succeed  and  my 
continued  observation  confirmed  my  then  formed 
judgment  that  I  could  not  mix  rum  and  success  in 
the  same  glass. 

After  the  last  sales  of  lumber  in  the  fall,  I  made 
the  arrangements  for  the  winter's  lumbering,  ably 
assisted  by  B.  F.  Miner,  who  attended  to  procuring 
the  supplies  and  engineered  the  financial  part  of 
the  business. 

The  winter  following  my  running  one  camp,  the 
three  camps  were  put  under  my  charge  and  1 

48 


spent  a  part  of  the  time  at  each.  The  company 
made  money  and  their  credit  was  unquestioned. 

Mr.  Wightman  moved  his  family  from  Mystic 
to  Werner  and  developed  a  "bad  lung"  that  had  to 
be  soaked  in  whiskey  and  which  eventually  result- 
ed in  the  failure  of  the  company,  and  no  improve- 
ment to  the  lung. 

Gurdon  Allyn  of  Mystic  saw  how  things  were 
going  and  sold  out  his  interest  before  the  smash. 

The  fact  that  the  business  went  into  the  hands 
of  a  receiver  and  even  then  paid  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  all  claims  shows  that  sober  management 
would  have  given  continued  profits. 

If  some  reader  of  this  story  should  look  for  the 
location  of  named  places  and  fail  to  find  on  the 
map  Werner,  Wis.,  he  need  not  think  there  was  no 
such  place,  for  in  the  sixties  it  had  a  Post  Office, 
two  large  hotels,  the  largest  saw  mill  on  the  river, 
and  a  good  sized  population. 

The  mill  has  gone,  the  hotels  have  gone,  all  of 
the  houses  have  been  torn  down  and  moved  away, 
and  there  is  neither  Post  Office  or  church  to  mark 
the  place. 

Less  than  a  life  time  has  made  this  great  change 
and  it  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  many  of 
the  old  residents  are  yet  on  this  side  of  the  "Great 
Divide." 

Originally  settled  by  people  from  the  State  of 
Maine,  they  were  reliable,  honest  and  a  fair  minded 
lot. 

The  most  of  them  were  of  large  growth,  both 

49 


men  and  women,  and  one  of  our  Mississippi  pilots 
whose  home  was  here  stood  six  feet  and  seven 
inches  in  his  stockings  and  weighed  over  four  hun- 
dred pounds. 

The  boys  had  a  story  they  told  about  my  "paying 
attention"  (whatever  that  was),  to  one  of  these 
large  sized  "State  of  Maine  girls,"  and  while  it 
seems  needless  for  me  to  say  that  the  story  was  not 
truthful  I  will  tell  it,  as  they  told  it,  and  as  it  is 
even  told  today  by  one  of  the  surviving  boys  now 
living  near  here. 

Mr.  Moses  Chase  was  landlord  of  one  of  the 
hotels,  and  he  had  a  daughter  Lucy,  that  was  very 
entertaining  and  interesting  and  beautiful. 

Now  I  have  always  argued  that  a  big  man 
ached  harder  than  a  small  one,  and  if  this  is  true, 
a  girl  of  seventeen  summers  that  weighed  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty  pounds  and  was  proportionately 
good  looking  and  sweet  and  entertaining  must 
have  been  so  to  a  very  large  degree. 

I  know  that  many  evenings  found  me  a  caller 
upon  the  fair  Lucy  in  the  parlor  of  the  hotel. 

So  much  loveliness  had  no  chance  to  be  neglect- 
ed, and  many  other  young  men  sought  her  society. 

Now  the  story  told  about  me  was  that  at  half 
past  eleven  in  the  evening  a  gentleman  named 
"William  Stevens"  who  had  been  sitting  up  with 
her,  went  to  change  the  position  of  his  arm,  and 
ran  afoul  of  my  arm  that  had  partially  encircled 
her  for  hours,  on  the  other  side. 

As  before  said  I  do  not  believe  this  story,  and 

50 


Miss  A  lice  .Hale 


C.  Q.  Eldredge 
Miss  Arabella  Thew        1865         Miss  Alice  Hale 


several  girls  with  whom  I  have  had  the  honor  of 
sitting  up,  joined  me  in  general  denial  in  writing, 
on  the  grounds  that  they  believed  it  unreasonable 
and  not  in  accord  with  my  general  mode  of  pro- 
cedure. 

I  only  tell  the  yarn  to  show  what  foolish  and 
unlikely  stories  may  be  circulated  by  jealous 
rivals. 

The  pictures  of  Werner  girls  that  I  am  honored 
by  being  enabled  to  show  in  this  book,  will  bear 
me  out  in  this  statement  that  they  were  attractive 
and  interesting. 

I  am  very  sorry  I  can  not  show  the  picture  of 
"Lucy,"  before  mentioned,  but  I,  realizing  what 
I  should  ask  for  in  requesting  one,  never  had  a 
volume  of  courage  sufficient  to  make  the  request. 

The  years  of  my  life  on  the  Wisconsin  and  Mis- 
sissippi Rivers  contained  many  items  that,  taken 
individually,  would  make  interesting  stories,  but 
to  frame  them  into  this  history  is  not  a  part  of  my 
work. 

Each  year  was  much  a  repetition  of  its  prede- 
cessor until  the  final  breakup  in  1869  when  B.  F. 
Miner  and  myself  bought  a  nearby  farm  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
hops,  which  were  then  selling  for  sixty  cents  a 
pound.  When  we  had  twelve  acres  of  hops  in 
condition  to  pick,  which  took  two  years,  we  had 
expended  all  the  money  we  had  saved  from  our 
salaries  while  in  the  lumber  business  and  a  hop 
market  of  four  cents  a  pound  instead  of  sixty  cents 

51 


confronted  us. 

However,  with  the  help  of  some  fifty  girls  that 
we  "imported"  for  that  purpose,  we  harvested  our 
crop,  paid  all  our  bills,  but  did  not  have  funds 
enough  left  in  our  hands  to  buy  a  two  bladed 
jackknife. 

This  failure  in  the  hop  business  ruined  hun- 
dreds of  farmers  and  very  many  merchants  who 
had  advanced  them  money  and  stores  on  the  secur- 
ity they  thought  they  had  in  hops. 

As  Miner  and  I  had  some  stock  on  the  farm 
and  a  good  pair  of  horses,  we  decided  to  go  to 
farming. 

This  was  one  of  the  years  when  wild  pigeons 
were  so  plenty  they  broke  down  thousands  of 
small  pine  trees  by  lighting  in  them.  We  sowed 
some  eighty  acres  to  oats,  but  the  land  was  sandy 
and  the  season  dry  and  when  it  was  time  to  harvest 
them,  we  found  they  were  so  short  that  a  pigeon 
had  to  get  on  his  knees  to  pick  off  the  kernels. 

While  this  land  was  suitable  for  hops,  for  gen- 
eral farming  it  was  a  failure. 

Our  bill  of  fare  was,  for  the  winter,  venison, 
pigeons,  hubbard  squash  with  milk  gravy. 

This  we  changed  every  day  in  the  order  they 
were  served,  the  goods  were  always  the  same. 

In  the  winter  of  1870,  I  came  to  Mystic  to  attend 
the  Golden  Wedding  anniversary  of  my  parents. 

As  the  old  house  was  small,  the  reception  was 
held  in  Morgan  Hall. 

Some  four  hundred  invitations  were  issued  and 

52 


Christopher  Eldredge  Nancy  Eldredgre 

In  !870 


the  most  of  those  invited,  qualified. 

To  make  the  exercises  all  the  more  interesting, 
a  grand-son  of  the  celebrants  was  married  during 
the  festivities. 

I  would  say  while  on  the  subject  of  marriage 
ceremonies,  that  my  parents  lived  to  celebrate  their 
sixtieth  marriage  anniversary,  that  I  was  present 
and  that  all  the  good  things  said  and  done  ten 
years  before  were  repeated,  except  the  marriage 
of  the  grand-son,  he  feeling  that  there  was  no 
need  of  more  business  on  his  part. 

While  on  this  trip  east,  George  F.  Langworthy 
insisted  that  I  come  to  his  house  in  the  spring,  run 
his  farm  and  sell  it  if  possible  and  that  the  money 
from  the  sale  should  be  turned  over  to  me  and  be 
invested  by  me  in  some  business  that  I  might  desire 
to  enter  into. 

I  had,  however,  agreed  with  my  brother,  James, 
to  purchase  the  sailing  sloop,  Maria,  and  run  her 
as  a  freighter  and  for  rockweed  or  kelp,  and  this 
would  prevent  my  immediate  acceptance  of  the 
Langworthy  proposition. 

We  bought  the  Maria  in  the  spring,  and  in 
April,  1871,  I  took  out  my  papers  from  the  Ston- 
ington  Custom  House  as  Captain,  and  we  drove  her 
through  the  season  to  the  full  limit  and  made  her 
pay  about  a  hundred  dollars  a  month  to  each  of  us. 

We  made  long  days  and  many  times  they  were 
the  full  twenty-four  hours. 

I  thought  a  lot  about  what  Mr.  Langworthy  had 
said  to  me  and  his  proposition  opened  up  some 

53 


possibilities  that  I  thought  worthy  of  investigation. 

This  resulted  in  finding  that  the  title  to  the  farm 
was  in  the  name  of  Mrs.  Langworthy  instead  of 
Mr.,  and  that  it  was  heavily  mortgaged  to  the 
Norwich  Savings  Society  to  make  good  the  notes 
Mr.  Langworthy  had  put  into  the  Wisconsin  Lum- 
ber business. 

There  had  been  at  this  time  two  large  dividends 
paid  by  the  Wisconsin  Receiver  but  these  notes 
were  not  recognized  by  him  as  claims  against  the 
old  firm. 

If  these  mortgages  remained,  there  would  be 
practically  no  farm  to  sell. 

After  looking  the  matter  over  carefully,  I  made 
the  Langworthys  the  proposition,  that  if  they  would 
have  the  Norwich  Savings  Society  surrender  their 
claim  to  me,  I  would  endeavor  to  make  the  Receiv- 
er allow  it;  and  if  they  would  pay  my  expenses  out 
and  back  to  Wisconsin,  there  would  be  no  other 
costs,  and  if  I  was  successful  I  would  run  their 
farm  a  year  unless  sold  quicker  on  the  proposition 
Mr.  Langworthy  had  made  me.  When  Mr. 
Langworthy  tried  to  get  the  securities  from  the 
Norwich  Savings  Society,  they  turned  him  down, 
and  he  told  me  he  could  get  no  one  to  help  him. 

I  went  to  Mr.  A.  B.  Taylor  and  put  the  case  up 
to  him.  He  questioned  me  closely  and  sharply  and 
then  turning  to  me  said,  "So  you  want  me  to  go 
to  Norwich  with  you  and  guarantee  you  for  six 
thousand  dollars,  do  you?  While  you  take  these 
papers  and  go  to  Wisconsin,  where  is  my  security 

54 


coming  from?" 

I  said,  "On  my  own  account  1  would  never  ask 
it,  but  it  is  in  the  interests  of  the  Langworthys. 

"I  feel  absolutely  sure  that  I  can  handle  the  Wis- 
consin end,  and  for  you  to  have  a  souvenir  while 
I  am  gone,  I  will  leave  you  my  personal  note  for 
the  whole  amount." 

He  said,  "How  about  leaving  your  note  with 
the  bank?" 

"Because,"  I  said,  "they  wouldn't  take  it  for  a 
dollar." 

He  went  to  Norwich  with  me,  pledged  up  to  the 
bank  all  they  required  and  they  turned  over  to  me 
their  claim. 

Believing  I  had  justice  on  my  side,  I  secured 
from  the  receiver  after  quite  a  struggle,  the  two 
dividends  already  paid  and  later  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  the  full  claim. 

I  thanked  Mr.  Taylor  for  his  confidence  and  his 
act  was  never  forgotten. 

I  commenced  to  farm  in  Mystic  in  January, 
1872,  and  among  other  departments  opened  up  a 
village  milk  route. 

I  still  have  the  milk-bell. 

I  kept  three  hundred  hens  and  ran  a  small  mar- 
ket garden. 

Most  of  my  eggs  and  vegetables  were  sold  at 
the  Pequot  Hotel  in  New  London. 

A  young  lady  from  Lansingburgh,  New  York, 
visited  at  the  farm  in  the  summer  and  all  work 
seemed  to  go  easier  after  her  arrival. 

55 


J  kept  no  help,  had  very  little  help  from  Mr. 
Langworthy  and  yet  I  made  the  farm  pay. 

The  hens  averaged  a  dollar  profit  per  hen  and 
the  milk  route,  though  small,  paid  well. 

I  delivered  for  six  cents  per  quart. 

I  sold  the  farm  in  July,  1873,  for  eight  thousand 
five  hundred  dollars  cash,  to  B.  F.  Lewis  and  A.  B. 
Taylor. 

We  had  an  auction  and  disposed  of  personal  farm 
property,  and  the  furniture  was  sent  to  Hoosick 
Falls,  New  York. 

I  actually  ran  the  farm  eighteen  months  and 
made  it  pay  about  a  thousand  dollars. 

I  made  a  visit  to  Lansingburgh,  New  York,  early 
in  1873,  to  renew  acquaintance  with  the  young  lady 
from  there  who  had  visited  the  farm  the  year 
before. 

Through  her  father  a  business  opening  in  Hoos- 
ick Falls  was  found  calling  for  about  the  amount 
of  money  received  from  the  Langworthy's  farm. 

This  was  turned  over  to  me,  the  Langworthys 
taking  my  notes  payable,  one  thousand  a  year  as 
made  from  the  business. 

The  Langworthys  set  up  house-keeping  in  Hoos- 
ick Falls,  N.  Y. 

I  entered  as  partner  in  the  business  of  M.  F. 
White  &.Co.,  and  between  the  anxieties  of  a  new 
business,  the  getting  -ready  to  be  married  which 
was  arranged  for  September,  and  the  home-sick- 
ness of  the  LangworthySj  I  had  troubles  without 
end. 

56 


The  Langworthys  decided  to  return  to  Mystic 
and  instead  of  living  up  to  our  agreements  both 
verbal  and  written,  they  demanded  all  of  their 
money,  and  at  once. 

My  father-in-law-to-be  wanted  me  to  have  no 
trouble  with  them  and  he  took  my  unsecured  notes 
for  something  over  six  thousand  dollars  payable 
with  interest,  one  thousand  a  year,  and  I  am  pleased 
to  record  the  fact  that  each  and  every  one  of 
them  was  paid  the  day  it  became  due. 

I  never  got  a  cent  for  Wisconsin  collections  or 
the  months  of  personal  service  rendered  the  Lang- 
worthys, without  which  they  would  have  lost 
their  farm  entirely. 

I  was  married  in  September,  1873,  and  lived 
in  Hoosick  Falls  till  1893. 

I  had  a  large  business  which  I  increased  from 
sales  of  thirteen  hundred  a  month  in  1873,  to 
thirteen  thousand  dollars  a  month  in  1893,  when 
I  sold  out. 

All  of  my  savings  had  been  invested  in  well 
selected  real  estate  and  next  to  Walter  A.  Wood 
I  was  the  largest  individual  tax  payer  in  town. 

In  1892  the  reelection  of  Cleveland  upset  all 
values  and  possibly  no  place  was  harder  hit  than 
Hoosick  Falls. 

My  property  outside  of  my  business  was  im- 
proved real  estate  consisting  of  rented  property 
with  rentals  ranging  from  six  to  thirty  dollars  per 
month. 

This  had  given  me  so  good  an  income  that  I 

57 


fell  able  to  put  a  man  in  charge  of  the  property 
as  agent,  and  move  to  Mystic  and  there  make  a 
permanent  home. 

The  gentleman  with  whom  I  entered  into  part- 
nership in  Hoosick  Falls  took  me  in  because  of 
failing  health  and  he  continued  to  get  worse,  and 
never  visited  the  office  a  half  a  dozen  times  after 
the  partnership  was  formed. 

It  made  it  pretty  hard  for  me,  a  stranger  to 
the  business,  and  the  place,  to  make  a  success  of 
it,  but  I  put  in  long  days  and  skipped  vacations 
till  1876,  when  I  went  to  Philadelphia  to  the  Cen- 
tennial Exposition. 

In  November  of  that  year  my  partner  died,  and 
though  he  left  a  will  and  executors,  I  was  appoint- 
ed to  settle  the  estate  which  was  a  fairly  large 
one,  and  in  so  far  as  I  know,  it  was  settled  satis- 
factorily to  all  interested  parties.  Sometime  after 
his  death  I  purchased  his  interest  in  the  business, 
and  later  the  entire  real  estate  connected  therewith. 

I  could  readily  tell  many  things  about  Hoosick 
Falls  that  naturally  seem  a  part  of  this  story,  but 
I  feel  that  the  village  as  the  birthplace  of  the 
Walter  A.  Wood  Mowing  Machine  Co.  has  notoriety 
enough. 

I  will,  however,  tell  of  an  incident  indirectedly 
connected  with  the  village  that  has  caused  much 
comment. 

This  story  relates  to  the  only  tombstone  in  the 
world  where  the  survivors  seem  to  get  even  with 
the  doctors. 

58 


'«  £ 

§5 


—  si 
v    bn 

S     3 


In  Maple  Grove  Cemetery 

Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y.,  stands 

a  Tombstone  with  this  inscription; 

'Ruth  Sprague 
'  Daughter  of  Gibson  and  Elizabeth  Sprague 

'Died  Jan.  11,  1816,  Age 
'9  years,  1  month  and  3  days. 
'She  was  stolen  from  the  grave  by  Roderick  B.  Clow 
'and  disected  at  Dr.  P.  M.  Armstrong's  office  in 
'Hoosick,  N.  Y.,  from  which  place  her  mutilated 
'remains  were  obtained  and  deposited  here. 
'Her  body,  dissected  by  fiendish  men, 
'Her  bones  anatomised, 
'Her  soul  we  trust  has  risen  to  God 
'Where  few  physicians  rise.' 

The  first  house  lot  purchased  by  me  in  Hoosick 
Falls  in  1873,  I  bought  of  this  old  couple  and 
they  were  my  neighbors  for  years.  Having  had 
very  little  experience  in  biography  writing,  I 
must  ask  my  readers  to  pardon  me  if  at  times  1  am 
not  consecutive  in  my  recitals  and  have  as  it  were 
to  "back  up." 

When  I  went  to  Hoosick  Falls  in  1872,  the  vil- 
lage had  twenty-five  hundred  inhabitants;  in  1892 
it  had  increased  to  seventy-five  hundred. 

I  always  gloried  in  the  village,  and  'for  its  suc- 
cess, was  ever  ready  to  sing  its  praises,  and  help 
furnish  the  music. 

I  built  and  ran  a  large  wood-working  factory 

59 


in  connection  with  my  lumber  yard,  built  and 
conducted  the  only  grist-mill  for  miles  around, 
ran  a  machine  shop,  and  furnished  rooms  and 
power  to  a  shirt  factory  working  several  hundred 
girls,  rooms  and  power  to  a  toy  factory,  and 
worked  a  large  crew  of  carpenters  and  masons 
building  over  two  hundred  buildings  by  contract 
in  the  years  I  was  there. 

I  was  also  instrumental  in  erecting,  equipping 
and  superintending  a  knit  goods  factory,  employ- 
ing a  hundred  hands  and  was  treasurer  of  the 
corporation  for  two  years. 

I  was  one  of  the  two  men  that  secured  the  in- 
corporation of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Hoosick 
Falls,  which  institution  has  ever  stood  as  a  credit 
to  its  promoters. 

Politically  I  was  known  as  a  Republican  and 
for  the  success  of  the  party  I  was  ever  ready  to 
do  my  part. 

I  refused  many  offers  of  a  candidacy  for  politi- 
cal honors,  rather  preferring  to  devote  my  entire 
time  to  my  business. 

I  made  one  and  only  one  exception  and  that 
for  a  village  office  when  Walter  A.  Wood  and 
a  hundred  and  thirty-five  residents  of  my  ward 
signed  a  petition  asking  me  to  run  for  trustee. 

I  was  elected  by  a  handsome  majority. 

While  holding  office,  it  was  for  two  years,  the 
Honorable  Walter  A.  Wood  died. 

His  death  was  a  great  loss  to  the  village,  and 
this,  taken  with  Cleveland's  reelection,  sent  all 

60 


. 

o  * 

•s  -S  g 
.t;  >  S 


.a  -a  « 


values  down,  practically  closed  the  large  manu- 
facturing interests  of  the  town,  made  the  people 
unable  to  pay  their  rents,  since  they  had  no  work, 
and  rentable  property  became  a  drug  on  the  mar- 
ket. 

My  wife,  her  sister  and  mother,  had  all  died 
in  one  month  of  typhoid  fever  in  the  year  of  1885, 
and  their  loss  to  me  had  broken  up  in  a  large 
degree  the  deep  interest  in  business  that  I  had 
taken  up  to  that  time. 

I  had  the  house  in  Mystic  on  my  hands  and 
thought  best  to  use  it. 

I  tried  to  get  this  built  by  contractors  near 
Mystic  but  the  only  bid  I  received  was  from  the 
Sherman  Lumber  Co.  of  Westerly  and  their  price 
was  some  eighteen  thousand  dollars. 

So  I  built  it  with  my  own  men  from  Hoosick 
Falls,  paying  one  railroad  over  a  thousand  dol- 
lars for  transportation  of  workmen.  Bentley  & 
Co.  of  New  London  furnished  the  material  and 
one  barge  of  six  hundred  tons  burden  came  from 
their  yard  to  my  dock,  the  largest  vessel  that  ever 
came  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Mystic  River. 

But  right  here  I  want  to  say  that  when  a  boy 
back  in  1861  there  was  sailing  from  lower  Mystic 
sixteen  ships,  ten  barks,  ten  schooners  and  four 
sloops;  and  from  the  masthead  of  one  of  them  in 
1862,  I  saw  the  Great  Eastern  steam  westward 
through  Long  Island  Sound. 

We  furnished  this  house  "Riverview"  so  called 
in  1890.  I  had  remarried  and  with  my  wife  and 

61 


three  children  and  hired  help  from  Hoosick  Falls, 
we  spent  the  summers  of  '91  and  '92  at  Mystic. 

In  1893  we  moved  to  the  house  permanently, 
sending  some  furniture  from  Hoosick  Falls  and 
a  car  load  from  New  York  City  as  the  house  was 
large  and  required  a  lot  of  it. 

I  continued  to  own  the  Hoosick  Falls  real  estate 
up  to  1896  when  the  condition  of  the  country  and 
of  Hoosick  Falls  in  particular,  was  so  bad  that  I 
determined  to  sell  it. 

This  was  no  easy  task,  but  I  finally  sold  for 
eleven  thousand  three  hundred  dollars  what  had 
cost  me  in  cash  at  a  low  figure  one  hundred  and 
thirteen  thousand  dollars. 

It  took  a  lot  of  nerve  to  sign  those  deeds,  for 
the  property  was  never  mortgaged  for  a  dollar, 
and  although  through  buying  it,  the  purchaser 
has  become  the  richest  man  in  the  village,  I  have 
never  had  a  regret  that  I  sold  it. 

In  1902  together  with  my  wife,  I  made  an  ex- 
tended trip  south  and  west  reaching  in  a  round- 
about way,  St.  Louis,  and  from  there  by  steamboat 
up  the  Mississippi  River  to  St.  Paul. 

Among  the  many  pleasant  incidents  of  this  trip 
was  a  visit  to  Mark  Twain's  old  home  in  Hanni- 
bal, Mo.,  and  a  half  hour  spent  with  him  at  the 
hotel  in  that  city  where  he  was  then  staying.  The 
changes  of  forty  years,  I  have  very  briefly  touched 
upon,  and  a  few  things  that  emphasize  those 
changes  I  desire  to  bring  forward. 

We  met  in  the  eight  hundred  mile  passage  only 

62 


one  lumber  raft,  and  instead  of  some  twenty  men 
with  huge  oars  at  each  end  of  the  raft,  two  small 
steamers  took  their  place. 

One  steamer  lashed  to  the  raft  across  her  bow, 
and  the  other  endwise  at  the  rear  of  the  raft. 

The  only  men  in  sight  were  those  in  the  pilot 
house  of  the  steamer. 

When  I  was  in  the  lumber  business  in  Wisconsin 
we  "ran"  our  lumber  down  the  Wisconsin  River 
to  its  mouth  near  Clayton,  Iowa,  and  then  fasten- 
ed it  together,  making  one  large  raft. 

In  coming  down  the  Wisconsin  River,  all  lum- 
ber had  to  pass  through  the  "Dells." 

So  far  as  I  know  there  is  no  natural  scenery 
in  the  state  of  Wisconsin  that  compares  with  these 
"Dells." 

For  some  six  miles  the  river  is  cut  through 
solid  rock  that  rises  sometimes  fifty  feet  or  more 
above  the  water. 

At  one  place  the  whole  river  rushes  through  a 
cut  where  it  is  only  fifty-two  feet  wide. 

It  was  dangerous  for  raftsmen  and  many  lost 
their  lives  here. 

The  strange  shapes  that  the  rocks  have  acquired 
from  the  action  of  the  water  are  wonderful. 

Today  there  is  a  line  of  pleasure  and  excursion 
steamers  running  from  Kilboum  City  up  through 
the  "Dells"  and  no  person  going  over  the  M.  & 
St.  Paul  R.  R.  will  ever  regret  a  stop  over  at  this 
place,  and  a  careful  inspection  of  this,  one  of 
nature's  most  wonderful  works. 

63 


There  were  so  many  steam  boat  lines  on  the 
upper  Mississippi  in  the  sixties  that  great  induce- 
ments were  held  out  to  the  lumbermen  to  send 
their  men  back  by  this  line,  or  that  line,  they  of- 
fering better  fare  and  cheaper  mileage  than  their 
competitors.  My  position  as  paymaster,  and  man- 
ager of  transportation  for  the  men,  brought  me 
in  direct  communication  with  the  captains  and 
pursers  of  these  boats  with  whom  in  the  interest 
of  the  lumber  company,  I  made  the  best  terms  pos- 
sible. 

Sometimes  there  would  be  a  half  dozen  crews  ol 
raftsmen  going  up  to  LaCrosse  on  the  same  boat, 
numbering  from  a  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hun- 
dred men,  and  as  every  boat  had  an  enormous 
bar  room  and  a  saloon  that  would  accommodate 
from  ten  to  twenty  sets  of  card  parties,  the  trips 
were  frequently  lively. 

In  no  instance  did  I  see  the  officers  of  the  boat 
interfere  in  the  amusements?  of  the  raftsmen. 

It  frequently  developed  into  gun  play  and  at 
one  time  I  saw  a  card  player  accused  of  cheating, 
hung  by  the  neck  from  the  flagpole  of  the  steamer 
till  he  acknowledged  the  crime,  and  tho  I  rode 
some  three  hundred  miles  further  up  the  river 
on  the  same  boat  with  him,  he  did  not  recover  life 
enough  to  walk  and  was  carried  ashore  by  his 
comrades  at  the  landing  to  which  he  was  ticketed. 

The  captains  and  mates  of  these  steamers  were 
picked  men,  and  altho  many  writers  have  under- 
taken to  tell  the  rough  way  they  handled  their 

64 


crews,  called  "roustabouts"  I  have  never  seen 
paper  with  enough  asbestos  in  its  makeup  to 
withstand  the  fire  and  brimstone  that  would  flow 
from  the  pen  that  truthfully  told  the  story. 

They  allowed  the  raftsmen  to  do  as  they  pleased 
for  the  financial  interest  of  the  steamboat  com- 
pany centered  in  satisfied  passengers. 

The  following  incident  taken  from  the  New 
York  World  and  dated  July  11,  gives  a  good  idea 
of  how  business  was  carried  on  in  those  good  old 
days. 

The  item  reads: 

"Davenport,  Iowa,  Christopher  Leonidas  $and 
his  son,  long  haired  medicine  men,  wearing  sharp- 
shooter's medals  and  heavily  armed,  boarded  the 
Diamond  Joe  Steamer,  Dubuque,  at  Rock  Island, 
111.,  and  attempted  to  take  possession  of  the  craft. 

"Mate  Dan  Green  shot  and  killed  both  men 
when  the  boat  was  in  front  of  Davenport,  and 
their  bodies  were  taken  off  here.  The  coroner's 
jury  exonerated  Green." 

I  was  not  on  this  steamer  when  this  happened, 
but  have  been  a  passenger  on  her  many  times. 

"Riverview"  with  its  thirty  acre  park  and  three 
acre  house  lot  gave  me  plenty  of  work  and  as  the 
house  was  full  of  guests  during  the  summer,  rela- 
tives and  friends,  we  were  always  busy.  I  built 
a  fine  dam  on  the  west  side  of  the  park,  one  and 
a  half  miles  of  roads  within  its  bounds,  trimmed 
personally  over  six  thousand  trees,  large  and 
small,  that  grew  wild  on  its  acres,  dug  a  well 

65 


near  a  log  summer  house  and  arranged  the  same 
with  the  old  style  "well  sweep,"  set  out  over 
three  thousand  catalpa  trees,  arranged  tables  with 
seats,  fireplaces  and  so  forth,  where  many  picnics 
were  held,  and  built  a  tower  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  feet  high  that  gave  a  good  view  from 
its  top  of  Block  Island,  Long  Island  and  contiguous 
territory. 

Some  of  the  means  employed  to  make  it  inter- 
esting for  the  friends  who  visited  us  in  this  rather 
isolated  section  of  the  country  are  possibly  worthy 
of  mention. 

In  the  first  place  we  had,  besides  our  house-lot 
and  park,  the  Mystic  River,  that  is  unsurpassed 
in  natural  beauty,  and  its  power  to  furnish  pleas- 
ure and  enjoyment  to  those  who  obtain  satisfac- 
tion from  boating. 

I  built  the  yacht,  James  G.  Elaine,  with  accom- 
modations for  six  people,  and  furnished  her  with 
every  thing  necessary  for  comfort,  row  boats  and 
power  boats  were  ever  ready  at  the  landing  and 
in  stormy  weather  a  Regulation  sixty -five  foot 
bowling  alley  with  shooting  gallery  adjoining, 
gave  an  opportunity  for  inside  amusement. 

I  felt  when  I  built  "Riverview"  that  it  was 
largely  for  my  friends,  and  their  enjoyment  was 
to  me  the  greatest  of  my  compensations. 

I  tried  to  do  some  farming  and  one  year  raised 
the  largest  potatoes  reported  in  the  state,  weighing 
two  and  a  half  pounds  each,  and  one  year  three 
hundrd  and  thirty-five  measured  bushels  of  mer- 

66 


chantable  potatoes  from  a  measured  acre. 

So  for  years  the  same  conditions  existed  and 
the  same  line  of  work  was  pursued. 

In  1904,  my  younger  son,  eighteen  years  of 
age,  met  a  very  tragic  death  and  as  I  had  counted 
on  him  to  stay  at  home  and  run  the  place,  it  upset 
all  of  my  plans  and  made  me  desire  to  get  away 
from  it. 

I  immediately  commenced  to  advertise  it  for 
sale,  but  it  was  not  until  April,  1913,  that  I  sold 
it. 

In  1904,  I  made  a  personal  trip  to  Jamaica, 
West  Indies,  staying  several  months  and  making 
quite  a  study  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
people  in  the  thinly  settled  portions  of  the  island. 
I  brought  back  many  curios  and  had  many  inter- 
esting experiences  with  the  natives. 

In  December,  1905,  my  wife  and  I  attended 
the  Atlanta,  Georgia,  Exposition,  and  remained 
south  during  the  winter. 

We  found  it  worked  better  to  be  away  from  Old 
Mystic  winters  rather  than  summers,  as  this  plan 
did  not  interfere  with  the  large  numbers  of  friends 
that  each  year  broke  bread  with  us. 

In  1911,  having  acquired  a  financial  interest  in 
a  citrus  fruit  plantation  in  Porto  Rico,  I  decided 
to  visit  it,  and  with  Judge  Willis  E.  Heaton  of 
Troy,  New  York,  and  Frederic  A.  Barnes  of  Mystic, 
officers  of  the  Fruit  Co.,  we  made  the  trip. 

After  a  satisfactory  visit  to  the  Island,  we  con- 
tinued south  and  visited  Haitai,  San  Domingo, 

67 


Jamaica  and  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

The  work  was  well  along  on  the  canal  and  Col- 
onel Goethals  made  our  visit  very  pleasant. 

We  returned  to  Connecticut  early  in  1912. 

The  old  homestead,  a  couple  of  hundred  feet 
south,  built  in  1850,  had  been  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1900  and  rebuilt  by  me  for  a  tenant  house. 

My  two  surviving  children  had  married  and 
were  living  in  neighboring  states  and  my  wife 
and  I  moved  into  the  tenant  house.  This  I  im- 
mediately commenced  to  rebuild  and  enlarge  until 
its  present  size  and  shape  were  obtained. 

I  built  a  large,  private  work-shop,  26x40  feef, 
and  have  a  two-story  garage,  20x20  feet,  and  wood 
house,  12x60  feet. 

In  building  over  our  present  home  it  was  my 
idea  to  make  it  a  model  of  convenience  and  com- 
fort, and  among  some  of  the  enjoyable  features  is  a 
piazza  on  the  river  side,  fifty-five  feet  long  and 
eight  feet  wide;  a  fireplace  in  the  library  always 
ready  for  service  and  that  burns  wood  four  and  a 
half  feet  long;  hot  and  cold  water  from  a  never 
failing  supply,  all  over  the  house;  seventy-eight 
electric  lamps  placed  around  the  house  where  they 
will  be  handy  when  you  chance  to  want  a  light; 
the  basement  and  three  floors  above  heated  by 
steam;  the  third  floor  above  the  basement  ar- 
ranged as  an  art  gallery  and  a  hundred  and  thirty 
pictures  now  hang  there;  a  perfect  sewer  system; 
all  pumps  run  by  electricity;  a  dining  room  18x18 

68 


The  entire  construction  of  this  building,  excavation,  foundation,  in 
side  finish,  tin  work,  roof,  decorating  and  lettering  were  ALL  person- 
ally performed  by  the  owner,  Chas.  Q.  Eldredge,  in  his  seventy-second 
year.  Something  over  3000  Souvenirs  and  Curios  are  on  Exhibition, 
and  to  view  them,  his  friends  are  ever  welcome. 


feet  in  size  to  share  with  our  friends. 

In  the  workshop  I  have  an  eight  horse  power 
engine,  air  cooled,  and  turning  lathe,  splitting 
saw,  jig  saw,  drills,  and  power  grinding  stones, 
and  emery  wheels;  also  a  seventy-five  light  dy- 
namo. 

So  far  as  I  know  I  have  a  full  set  of  tools  for 
carpenter,  machinist,  plumber,  blacksmith,  mason, 
paper  hanger,  painter  and  tinman;  and  am  fairly 
well  able  to  use  any  and  all  of  them  as  occasion 
may  require. 

A  Government  anemometer  on  the  peak  of  the 
shop  registers  by  electricity  in  the  library  in  the 
house  the  velocity  of  the  wind  per  hour. 

In  1917,  I  conceived  the  idea  of  a  place  to 
keep  and  show  my  many  souvenirs,  collected  in 
my  many  cruises  in  and  about  the  country;  and 
so  built  a  small  building  20x20  feet  in  size,  with 
sixteen  foot  posts,  as  a  showroom. 

This  has  proved  of  much  interest  to  the  public 
as  well  as  a  pleasure  to  myself. 

Over  five  hundred  visitors  registered  in  the 
book  during  the  last  twelve  months,  and  in  many 
cases  their  interest  resulted  in  sending  something 
to  the  Museum  to  add  to  the  collection.  The  build- 
ing has  a  large  sign  reading  "Private  Museum," 
but  visitors  are  always  welcome  without  charge 
or  tip. 

A  very  complete,  illustrated  catalogue  of  the 
curios  in  the  museum  has  been  prepared  and  is 
obtainable  if  visitors  desire. 


Personally  I  have  never  taken  much  interest 
in  geneology,  but  should  some  member  of  my 
family  ever  have  the  courage  to  wade  through  the 
pages  I  have  written,  it  might  serve  to  reward  them 
for  their  trouble  to  find  that  they  are  legitimate 
descendants  of: 

1.  Samuel  Eldred,  born  in  England  in  1620 

Died  in  Kingston,  Rhode  Island,  in  1697. 

2.  His  son,  Capt.  Daniel  Eldredge  of  Kingston, 

R.  I.,  and  Stonington,  Conn.,  was  captain 
of  the  troops  and  deputy  to  the  General 
Court.  Died  at  North  Kingston,  R.  I.,  Aug. 
18,  1726. 

3.  His  son,  James  Eldredge,  born  Dec.  5,  1696 

Died  at  North  Kingston,  R.  I.,  1738. 

4.  His   son,   Christopher   Eldredge,   born   North 

Kingston,  R.  I.,  Jan.  22,  1722.  Was  wound- 
ed in  the  face  during  Arnold's  attack  on 
New  London,  Conn.,  Sept.  6,  1781  and 
died  at  Stonington,  Conn.,  in  1811. 

5.  His  son,  Joshua  Eldredge,  born  at  Stoning- 

ton, Conn.,  Aug.  9,  1798.  Died  at  Ston- 
ington, Conn.,  Aug.  17,  1836. 

6.  His  son,  Christopher  Eldredge,  born  in  Ston- 

ington, Conn.,  Nov.  14,  1798.  Died  at  Old 
Mystic,  Conn.,  June  4,  1890. 

7.  His  son,   Charles  Eldredge,  known  for   over 

fifty  years  as  Charles  Q.  Eldredge,  born  at 
Old  Mystic,  Conn.,  July  15,  1845. 
Through   seven    generations   the    family   record 
reaches  back  without  a  break  and  though  in  the 

70 


early  days  the  final  "ge"  was  not  added,  the  evi- 
dence is  clear  that  it  was  the  same  family. 

Mr.  William  Henry  Eldredge  of  Twin  Falls, 
Idaho,  has  compiled  a  book  of  the  family  geneol- 
ogy  and  the  above  record  is  from  his  book. 

In  reading  over  the  pages  I  have  already  writ- 
ten, I  am  assured  of  one  very  evident  feature  of 
my  work,  and  that  is,  that  it  differs  from  an  ordin- 
ary autobiography  in  every  particular,  except  that 
the  writer  was  "born." 

This  fact  could  not  very  well  have  been  elim- 
inated, yet  in  the  biography  of  the  self  made  man, 
this  is  sometimes  attempted. 

Before  commencing  this  work  I  carefully  read 
some  suggestions  made  by  the  following  tvery 
successful  writers: 

Franklin  said,  "Don't  attempt  to  write  a  book 

unless  you  have  to." 
Sylvanus  Cobb  said,  "Don't  write  a  book  until 

you  are  absolutely  full  of  it." 
Beecher  said,  "Don't  write  a  book  till  you  can 
preach  a  sermon,  and  the  kind  of  a  sermon 
that  the  congregation  can  enjoy,  awake." 
Edward    Everett    Hale    said,    "Remember    it    is 
much  easier  to  write  a  book  than  to  make 
the  public  read  it." 

Mark  Twain  said,  "Before  you  write  a  book  be 

satisfied    in    your    own   mind   that    it   will 

make  the  reader  laugh  or  cry." 

Being  pretty  well  satisfied  that  it  will  meet  one 

of  the  requirements  quoted  above,  I  have  acquired 

71 


a  stock  of  courage,  sufficient  to  hand  it  to  the 
public. 

I  sincerely  hope  that  the  reader  may  find 
enough  of  interest  to  make  him  have  a  forgiving 
spirit,  towards  ~~lhe  uninteresting  sections  of  the 
work,  and  that  the  time  spent  in  going  through 
it  may  not  be  considered  entirely  lost. 

"What  is  writ,  is  writ — 
Would  it  were  worthier!  but  I  am  not  now 
That  which  I  have  been,  and  my  visions  flit 
Less  palpably  before  me,  and  the  glow 
Which  in  my  spirit  dwelt,  is  fleeting,  faint  and 
low." 


72 


A     000  105  105     1 


